Whimsica
by PastellPop
Summary: Random odyssey of randomness. An old story I'm remaking. Once upon a time, a lonely girl named Haku Yowane finds herself in a strange land filled with odd colorful people and strangely magical things. This is the land of Whimsica. The problem is, she's lost in is weird world. But does Haku have a purpose for being here?
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE**: So, I feel like you should know this before you start reading. This story was originally written a long time ago, and went through many edits, changes, etc.

This story right here is a remake of my very first draft, basically.

An older version of this story, "The World With No Logic" can be found on my page.

Next of all, this story is... more or less extremely random. It's childish, whimsical, and some things don't make sense.

Mostly, it was originally written for the purpose for an escape, I was really stressed one day, so I decided to write a random story to cheer myself up. Haku was the main character because I sympathized with her. It ended up becoming longer and longer, and more and more special to me. Eventually, it became this today.

I want this story to continue forever. It's really special to me and even though it's very random and weird, writing about Haku's adventure to make friends and overcome her weaknesses made me feel less lonely and really did help me.

So far, the original first draft is maybe 20,000 words long. It'll take a while to remake the entire thing. After I remake all I've written, I'm planning on adding to this story as I go.

_And oh, yes. It has OC's in it._

...

...

Now let's start the randomness.

* * *

**Once upon a time**, in a not-so-far-off land, there was an ordinary girl.

So far we don't know anything about this girl, or what she's like. But you might have known her once. Wait, maybe you are her...?

Anyway, let's start with the girl's name. Let's see... we shall call her "Haku Yowane".

As for her appearance, she looked a bit odd. Haku's hair was white, which was just something she had been born with. She had lanky arms and legs, droopy red eyes, stood quite tall for her age, and was scared of growing taller. She wished she were smaller so she could hide better.

Anyways, Haku Yowane also had a little problem.

This problem was... well, she was kind of lonely.

Being lonely, however, did give a person a lot of time to think. Haku Yowane did think a lot, sometimes too much; enough to give her a headache. But it was certainly a way to pass time by.

She'd been a dreamer since childhood, when she had spent a lot of time in her room isolated, with but her stuffed animals and a stack of books. Sometimes with a pack of colored pencils and her journal to scribble stuff in.

Due to living alone in the countryside and being homeschooled, she didn't have other kids to play with. Haku grew very acquainted with being by herself. That's when she started to make up all kinds of adventures to pass the time. Her room was a haven of sorts. The dining room was a huge shopping center. The small bathtub was a calm ocean, the jacuzzi tub was a dangerous ocean, and the shower was the waterfall that ran down a cliff. The stairs led to the sky. The living room was a big relaxing place for her, her dolls and imaginary friends.

The first time Haku attended public school, people thought she was strange. She never understood why. Sure, she talked to imaginary friends and played pretend. Indeed, she would rather read than run around at recess. Her hair was as white as snow which made her an outcast. For these reasons, peers avoided her and teased her.

Haku wanted to have friends, but eventually due to hurt feelings she was unable to talk to anyone without shaking and becoming nervous. She had become shy. And ever since then, that's what Haku had been. Shy and lonely.

"I want a best friend...", she thought a lot of the times.

"I wish… I could have someone to share everything with. Someone who understands me, to comfort me, to entertain me. Who listens to what I have to say, someone who is there for me. And almost even more, I wish I could do the same favor to that person too… that's friendship. I want to experience friendship.

"Th-the things I mostly w-want to share are... the stuff I daydream about. If I had a best friend, we could both pretend that... magical worlds are real and... we could live in them. It would be so fun to have someone to play along with me, and it'd be like... like we're really there…"

On the very day Haku's life changed, this was the journal entry she read aloud to the class.

The topic of the day's Language Arts journal was to describe a thing you thought was absolutely beautiful, a thing that you wanted the joy of experiencing one day.

Haku's entry was originally just going to be short and to the point. But this was Haku of course. She ended up pouring her heart out and turning it into an elaborate speech.

Plus, it took tremendous courage for Haku to read her entry aloud. The simple fact that people were going to listen to her innermost feelings for once was enough for her to take the chance. Especially as she was secretly addressing it mostly to Neru Akita, an outgoing and popular girl whom she secretly wanted to be friends with.

When Haku sat back down after speaking, she slid and sunk back into her seat, her face the color of a ripening strawberry, her heart beating so hard that it seemed to have beaten the air right out of her lungs.

"_I hope this will work_", she thought, crossing her fingers as she did when she got nervous. "_I hope I'm finally getting my message across…_"

"...Heh."

"Pfft."

But to Haku's dismay, _the snickers came._

The chuckles, snorts and giggles were first spontaneous; spaced-out like the first slow pops from a popping popcorn bag. Then when the bag heated up, the pops would sound in loud, steady succession.

"BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Wat she heck's she talking about?"

"Is she serious?"

"She's just so weird…"

And to answer Haku's previous hopes... nope. It didn't work.

Instead, the class only erupted into jarring laughter and spewed out the exact same painful remarks that Haku had been enduring since she was little.

Well, at least Neru wasn't laughing so much; she was only turned in her chair talking to another girl named Miki.

It still somewhat hurt Haku's feelings though. It looked as if Neru wasn't even paying attention to her.

Haku froze and felt her heart shatter to pieces. She buried her red face into her soft sleeves, trying to pretend nothing that was happening was real.

But it was real. Even the teacher stood perched in the corner with a hand over his creased face hiding the fact that he was chuckling almost pityingly.

With her head now perched on her hard wooden desk, cold tears began crawling into Haku's heavy eyelids.

_"I should've known this would happen... I really should've known..."_

Typical bad day for 

* * *

A few seconds passed and the school bell sounded. All the other students stormed out of their desks, out the door, and scurried down the halls, leaving Haku alone in the clear.

The room was dead empty and she was alone. She managed to unfreeze herself before weakly standing up to hobble out the door, down the stairs, to the back exit nobody used.

Haku was going to walk home. She lived on the other side of where most of the students lived, so the path before her was vastly vacant.

The sky above was off-white, frigid, distant and lonely-looking, just like her. Haku sighed and her distraught breath created a puffy cloud of steam in the midst of the thin, cold air.

Heavy feelings were pushing down on her, yet it was odd... why wasn't she iphysically/i feeling heavy? She actually felt strangely light at the moment, like she wasn't carrying anything on her back after all... wait...

Wait a minute...

"Ah! I left my schoolbag in Language Arts class!" Haku promptly sprung up from her slow slouch, turned right around, and frantically dashed right back to the direction of the school building.

"I need to hurry!" she breathed through her mouth as she ran, leaving more puffs of her breath in the icy air. She suddenly felt as if she were in the middle of a struggle.

Because of the incoming blizzard that was scheduled to hit in the evening, the after-school meetings had all been canceled. School was going to be closed in a matter of minutes. Therefore, Haku only had several minutes to run back to the class, grab her stuff and run back out.

"I have too many special things in my schoolbag..." Haku thought, dejectedly. "My journal, music player, and my stuffed kitten, Snowbell... what if the blizzard is going to be huge? School would be closed and I could be separated from my stuff for a whole week!"

Haku was somewhat of a swift runner; she often surprised herself with how fast she would end up dashing in gym class relay races. But she also ran out of breath really quickly. Before the school building even was in sight again, she was already panting, her lanky body flimsy like hanging noodles.

When she was almost exhausted, she closed her eyes but kept running.

The air she took in suddenly felt thinner, cleaner. She could feel a light, tart coldness through the fabric of her thin hooded jacket.

When she opened her eyes again, the the very air surrounding her was white and feathery.

A steady downfall of snow had started and was pelting down softly onto Haku. It suddenly was uplifting to be alone in the snow, she thought. It was as if she were in a storybook. There even was something a bit wondourous about this snow. It sparkled like diamonds and fell very quickly.

Through the thickening iciness, a very clear sound began to ring, resonating through the white, serene air as if the path ahead were completely clear.

It was an echoing, glassy sound. Listening closely, Haku could figure it was the ring of a bell.

It was so immersing, that retrieving her schoolbag momentarily slipped Haku's mind.

"What lovely bell sounds…", she thought, fluttering her eyes shut.

The sounds of the bells were very mesmerizing indeed.

Without thinking much of the outcome, Haku naturally took to follow the sounds of these bells. Her steps became lighter, like skips. Her fallen heart was now hovering back up like a puffy white cloud.

As the chiming became quite loud and even clearer, she finally saw a chandelier of bells floating high above her like a garden in the midst of the air! They came in bright yellows, ocean blues, purple mountain majesty and everything in between.

How enchanting!

Haku stared in awe, as she had never seen anything with a look quite like them.

It was almost an unreal sight alone, even without the extra fact that, floating around the bells, was a silver ferret who almost appeared like it was flying. It was trotting, hovering across the air, ringing the bells with its tail and little feet.

"Wow! What an enchanting dream!", Haku thought, putting her hands to her face. Well, of course she thought this was all a dream. This relieved her, as that meant that the incident back at the classroom hadn't really happened after all.

"The next time I have a dream like this, I want to be that ferret," she thought audibly.

"Wait! Hold it right there!"

A yelling voice suddenly pierced through the thin air like a spear and shocked Haku out of her peaceful, dreamy state of mind.

"Wait! Five more minutes, mom! Don't wake me up. I'm having an awesome dream…", Haku mumbled back to the voice, covering her ears on impulse.

"Mom?! _Dreams_? What are you babbling about?", the voice said again. It sounded closer than before. And snappier.

Haku grew shocked. Well, to say it in simple words. Her breath caught in her throat and chilled her windpipe.

"So wait, you were... able to see the ferret and those bells, right?"

The owner of the voice emerged into sight from the enclosure of white mist and snow, eyeing Haku directly with a perplexed squint on her round face.

"We were in the middle of summoning winter to the NormalLand. Don't tell me you could actually see us!"

She was an odd-looking girl, shorter than Haku, with hair a bubblegum shade of pink that curled around her face, framing her upper shoulders and surprised expression. On her head was what resembled a purple sleeping-cap, with a gold star shape at the end of the tip. The rest of her outfit was a rather endearing-looking mix between a witch outfit, a sailor suit, and a thick winter pajamas.

She looked like an eccentric cosplayer, dressed as a character from a fantasy franchise. Only this girl's face was dead serious as she continued to speak over Haku's mumbles of surprise.

"Well, fortunately, and also unfortunately." she said, "If you were able to see the ferret and those bells… that means... that means you aren't an ordinary girl at all!"

Haku's mouth fell open as she gasped in a mouthful of the fluttering snow.

"I… I'm not?", she layered her thin hands over her mouth and froze. Just what was happening today?

Haku was just dreaming though, right? She probably just fell asleep on the piano in the music room for the fourth time, you know, the usual? (Having turkey sandwiches for lunch made her do this for some reason).

"No..." the girl whispered, her wide violet pupils scintillating and her eyeballs round like globes. "You are not at all an ordinary girl..."

* * *

**A/N**: Stelle was originally Mirakurun from YuruYuri. It's because I was into YuruYuri at the time and wanted to put Mirakurun in. But I ended up replacing her with an OC. A YuruYuri character would really be out of place in a Vocaloid fanfiction (could this even be truly considered a Vocaloid fanfiction though? Lol)


	2. Chapter 2

"…No… this means... you are not… an ordinary girl..."

The pink-haired girl continued, her voice becoming lower and more serious by the second. She closed her eyes...

And abruptly shot them back open.

"…It means you're weird."

Haku's pupils dilated as she stepped back, almost slipping on the fluffy snow below her feet.

"Wha-whaaaaat!?"

So Haku wasn't a normal girl because she was weird!? How disheartening...!

"You see, only people with magical powers can see my companion," the girl said. She held out her gloved hands as the bells faded away, and her flying silver ferret leaped right down and landed into the magical girl's arms.

"But if you still can see them and you _don't_ have magic powers, then that means… something's _weird_ with you.", she said with the strangest concerned glare.

"But… I…", Haku didn't know how to respond.

"OR, do you have magical powers too? Nah… I doubt it."

The colorful girl puffed out one of her pinkish little cheeks.

Haku felt rigid once again as she tightly gripped her hands. "Well, if something really is wrong with me… what exactly... do you mean?", she asked in her hollow, timid voice.

"Well… you're seeing things that aren't there—at least things that really shouldn't exist in your non-magical perception. Oh well."

The swirly-haired girl shrugged.

"Anyway, Ah! How did I forget to introduce myself!?"

The girl's expression instantly became a bright smile. She pulled out a magic wand and threw into the air, flashed a wink, caught the wand and twirled it and made her pose.

" I'm... The Messenger of the Stars, _Magical Stelle_! Or something like that."

In the air, an upbeat jingle started to play randomly.

Haku's mouth gaped wide and she slowly applauded in awe at Stelle.

Stelle giggled and happily picked up her cat again.

"This is my cat Silverbell! I bet you can guess why her name is Silverbell, right?"

"Awfully unoriginal of you.", Silverbell scoffed, licking her fuzzy paws.

"Oh… be quiet!" Stelle blushed. "And stop acting like you're a cat..."

Haku squealed again in amazement.

"A _talking ferret that acts like a cat_!?", she blurted.

Stelle seemed to ignore Haku's surprise, muttering something that sounded like "such a muggle..."

She cleared her throat and spoke enthusiastically.

"Okay. Now I will test you, in order to see if you really are magical, or like I said, just

weird." she spoke loudly. "Ready?"

The small pink-haired girl closed her eyes, pressed her gloved hands together, and spun around three times. When she separated them, a bagel suddenly sat right between her the palms of her velvet gloves.

"H-how?!" Haku thought, unable to believe the magically appearing food.

"Okay. Here's a very quick and easy task. All you have to do is to transform this bagel into a donut!"

Haku looked at the bagel. It was a crisp, golden brown. It would've gone perfectly with some cream cheese or lox. Yum… although it really just wasn't the time to be lost in food thoughts.

"Um… how… exactly… do you do that?" Haku shakily asked. Stelle sighed.

"Okay grasshopper, I will show you, but once, and only once!"

Stelle presented her magical wand of gold, pink and silver, showing off the bright sparkling star that shone at the top in the middle of a neatly-tied silver bow.

She began to spin and twirl the wand until magical pink bubbles began to glow. Then when she jumped in the air, light began to lift her up.

"Miracle, magical, maho-iro MANGOOOOOO!"

The bagel in front of her glowed until it transformed into a mouthwatering chocolate donut with white glaze icing, and colorful pink and blue flower sprinkles scattered all upon it.

"Wooooow!", Haku shouted.

"Here, now you try it!" Stelle proudly handed the wand to Haku.

"You remembered all that, I assume."

"Y-yeah…", Haku tensely tried to convince herself.

Doing the same spins as Stelle (slightly shabbier), Haku tried her best to recite the magic words before she slipped mid-sentence in the snow and butchered the final part of the spell.

"Maho-iro MAA-"_-ka-SPLUNK!_"

Stelle buried her face in her gloved hands.

"She's just a warpy weirdo!"

"Now, don't be mean to the poor girl…", Snowbell said back. Stelle responded with a grunt.

But when Stelle lifted her palm from her face and opened slowly her eyes, her jaw instantly dropped. For laying gallantly before her overwhelmed eyes was this... this magical land constructed of… sweets, sweets, and... more sweets!

The tall confectionary castle that stood meters in front of them was constructed out of walls of waffles, with touches of whipped cream and sprinkles and gumdrops scattered across the rows!

Nearby was a lake made out of strawberry soda, with glaciers of dry icing with huge cherries on top!

The aroma that wafted in the air all around was the toasty smell of cookies, freshly baking in the oven on a cozy day. Mmm…

The sky was a delicate white, almost giving off a feeling of the nearby holidays.

"I just... what just... did I just... WHAT!?", Stelle exclaimed, her amethyst eyes twitching as she turned her head back and forth.

"I mean... um... I do love sweets, but just being here is enough to make my stomach hurt!" she babbled, in awe of all the edible scenery.

Stelle and Snowbell heard a shrill scream from a few yards over.

"Ah!? Wh-where is this? Did I do this? What happened…"

It was Haku, who landed behind a gumdrop rock, looking even more overwhelmed than before.

Stelle couldn't believe this girl.

"I-I just can't believe it!" she ran towards Haku.

"It's only your first time using magic, and you already figured out how to transport to other lands!?" Stelle flailed her arms in exasperation. "You really are a WARPY weirdo, that's for sure! You just WARPED, man!"

"Wait… I-I have…?" Haku panicked.

"I... why did I do that? What did I do... I just... I DON'T KNOW!"

In such a short time, the weirdest things ever to happen to Haku all happened.

"It takes an incredibly high level to be able to transport!", Mirakurun shrieked loudly.

But the girls suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the castle.

On the tip of the structure, which looked like a delicious waffle cone, was a blue haired young man who wore wearing a robe made of cherries and crepes. His head was adorned with an ice-cream-cone-crown, with a floating red cherry to top him all off. His outfit almost looked as if it borrowed elements from all sorts of desserts—or it was probably just MADE of dessert!

"Townspeople, listen closely!", he yelled merrily through a fortune-cookie-megaphone and twirled so that his outfit billowed.

"I have... a _berry, berry important announcement_." he suddenly paused, and then every single breathing creature in the town paused. The silence fell like a thick, heavy curtain.

In the midst of sighs and concerned whispers, the jolly man popped his smile and suddenly sprung in the air, yelling ecstatically (and absurdly loudly).

"It is now time for Prince Kaito's hourly FUN, FUN FLAN FIESTA! Whoooooo!"

"YAAAAAAAAAY!"

The townspeople, the tiny little shorter-than-average people clothed in food, began to cheer and holler from all around.

They scurried along the rocky road ice cream roads, across the gram cracker sidewalks, and even rowed fortune cookie boats across the strawberry milk river and yelled and cheered once they got to Kaito's castle.

"Now everyone!" Kaito joyfully sang, "Let's EXPLODE INTO RANDOM SPARKLES!"

"WHOO!" Disco lights emerged from everywhere, dotting the space around with star-shaped lights, resembling a snowstorm of neon sprinkles.

All of the townspeople began parading around, throwing sparkles and dancing to a loud, lively tune. Soon enough, Haku, Stelle and Snowbell got caught in the middle of everything…

Meanwhile…

"Enough, enough! I'm sick of my brother doing all these stupid annoying things!"

Prince Akaito Shion, brother of the Prince Kaito, lay irritated on his habanero couch in the castle's dim secluded basement, which only did a halfway job of blocking out Kaito's obnoxious noise.

Annoyed would have been an understatement for Akaito. He was stuffing peppers inside of his ears attempting to block out the sounds of Kaito's "Fun Fun Flan Fiesta", but the steam coming out of his ears from his red-hot angry brain only made them pop out every time.

"Arf arf! But Akaito. You are his brother!"

Salsa, Akaito's talking pet chili-dog ("dog" to be taken literally) paddled up on his stubby little legs and started bumping her head on the rim of Akaito's silky royal chair.

Salsa always had energy in her. Even in her sleep, she would still randomly be found bouncing around and even rolling up the walls. Sometimes Akaito went to clean her taco-shaped litter box and would find a small flame burning in it. (don't ask how.)

"Have I not noticed?", Akaito answered agitatedly.

"This isn't some magical cartoon world where brothers are ALWAYS alike.", he shouted to her.

"You ain't kidding." Salsa yapped, circling around and wagging her tail.

"This is a magical world where brothers are OPPOSITES instead."

Akaito turned his head and sighed, throwing a chili-shaped pillow on his face as if he was trying to sleep.

"I wanna go to my _real_ home! Back to the Fire Kingdom!" he quietly complained into the cushion.

"But I mean really.", Salsa continued, ignoring all of Akaito's complaints.

"You're red, he's blue. Almost opposites on the color spectrum. He likes sweets, and you like spicy things, and both of you couldn't possibly digest the other. He loves to be upbeat and peppy while you're grumpy and hidden all the time. He thinks the skinny end of the chocolate cornet is the head, and you think it's the fat end!"

Akaito jolted up glaring.

"Arrgh, don't even bring up the chocolate cornet thing again! Just remembering that heated argument we had makes me wanna—"

Luckily, right before Akaito erupted, there was a noise that sounded closer than the rest of the commotion.

A strange white-haired girl Akaito had never seen before fantastically tumbled through the trapdoor in the corner of the ceiling, landing on her bottom with a thud on Akaito's flame-patterned carpet.

"AIYEEE, IT'S FIRE! I'M BURNING!", Haku shrieked and curled up into a soft little ball, panicking from every-what-which-where was going on.

"What the heck? Can't you tell that isn't real fire at all?", Akaito shook his head. He rolled out of his couch and stood up, beginning to approach Haku with meager steps.

"Hurr... that's weird.", Salsa muttered to herself as she watched. "Akaito doesn't ever crawl out from his couch, not even during the time there was really a fire in here! He made Kaito throw ice cream at it to put it out!"

Salsa circled the living room and began to stalk from behind the couch.

"...But he gets out just because this _girl_ fell through the trapdoor?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Okay, calm down! What's wrong with you?" Akaito lifted Haku by her noodley arms and helped her to stand up.

"Eep! I… I don't know!", Haku said, tensely. "Everything's too strange and scary! A-and it doesn't even feel like it's a dream!"

"It's just my brother's stupid 'Fun Fun Flan Fiesta'.", Akaito sighed grumpily, gently letting go of Haku's arms.

"It's too overwhelming…", Haku exhaustedly pouted.

"Hm. You know what?", Akaito spoke in a sudden forceful tone that surprised Haku.

"I find it freaky around here too. My brother's nuts. Let's go."

Akaito abruptly snatched the startled Haku's shaking hand, and jumped with her through a large mirror located in the farthest corner of the room.

"Hey, what are you guys doing?", yapped little Salsa, now staring into the mirror.

The vision of the two on the other side slowly faded into the normal image of the room's reflection as the chili-dog continued barking at the glass.

Apparently, people could only come through the magic mirror when they were in contact with the magical red scarf Akaito always wore on his neck. The scarves were the symbol of royalty in his family.

Now on the other side of the mirror, Haku and Akaito were now gazing at a looming large white void which seemed endless. Within the short length which was visible, there was a television set, a couch, and a few small tables.

Haku was too overwhelmed now to even make a sound.

"We're safe here.", Akaito said, setting himself down on a couch. "Two sane people. Well… at least you seem sane compared to what goes on around here."

Haku only stood there with a paler-than-usual face and blank, hollow eyes. She knew nothing had to be real and that she would snap out of it eventually...

"In fact, you're too sane to even be from around here. So tell me," Akaito eyed the timid girl, tapping his fingers on his knee. "How, and why are you here?"

He spoke sternly, but almost as if he was trying to be consoling without changing his tone of voice from his usual cranky way of talking.

Haku attempted to calmly reach into her exploding brain and dig up her memory of what had happened.

"Well… you see…" she started to explain, "There was this magical… cat… and a magical girl who… and then… well, I ended up here because I casted a spell, b-but I think it went a little wrong…?"

Despite Haku speaking as calmly as she could, her voice still trembled and her sentences were chopped-up and incomplete.

"A spell you casted led you here? So you're a high-level mage?", Akaito asked, with a totally different tone of voice. In fact his eyebrows also rose a good inch above his eyelids in surprise.

Haku quickly shook her head.

"N-no! I'm… I'm nothing but a-a normal girl, and I don't know how or why I'm here!" Thinking of being lost and trapped make Haku begin to shake again. "Everything was normal one moment, but now I'm all the way here, and I want to get home…"

Haku hopelessly collapsed into one of the couches, only to find herself abruptly hitting the hard ground with a thud.

"Ayaya!", she involuntarily exclaimed, as she lost her balance.

"No, that's the holographic couch!", Akaito rushed to her and strained while pulling Haku up.

"Here's the couch you can sit in.", she led her to another one a few inches away. "To be honest, the reason I have fake couches in here is because it feels empty in here with only one."

Haku sat, and Akaito sat down on the floor, in front of the holographic couch Haku tumbled through.

"Okay, so tell me." he faced her. "Do you know how you can use magic to get out of here the same way you arrived?", Akaito asked Haku.

"I… n-no... and the wand… I lost it! Or wait… Magical Star Messenger Stelle has it! Or something like that!"

"iMagical... Star Messenger.../i?", Akaito looked completely baffled.

"It's too long a story!", Haku exclaimed.

"Anyways, we have to find that wand!" Akaito said.

"But… why do you want to get away from here so badly?", Haku asked, eyeing down. "This is… where you live, right?"

"Are you that clueless?", Akaito suddenly spoke with a raised voice again, "It's INSANE here! You're freaked out just being here, so imagine having to LIVE here!"

"I… I miss my home.", Haku said quietly, off-topic. She glanced towards the ground on the edge of the chair.

"So, what kind of place is your home?", Akaito said. He seemed to be softening a little bit, despite keeping his stern, serious demeanor.

"Well…", Haku began. "It's… very, um… plain… but a very nice place."

Memories began flowing in her head, slowly calming her back down.

"I live in a house... well, of course. It's a nice cozy, quiet house… only me and my mom. Outside is a place with a lot of normal buildings, trees, and gardens. A lot of animals live here, but I was never allowed to keep a pet. It rains a lot in the spring and fall and I really love it. Only… only I'm lonely because I've never... had a friend."

Haku finished speaking with her fist clenched and a thin layer of tears coating her eyes.

She silently hoped Akaito couldn't notice them, so she put on a relaxed smile in order to hide it.

The awkward and silent atmosphere was then promptly disturbed by explosive dark rays of light and a hard sudden boom. Akaito and Haku flinched and covered their faces.

When they were finally able to open their eyes again, another magical girl stood above them!

She stood in a menacing tall pose, hands-to-hips, on an invisible elevated platform in the midst of the blankness.

She was crowned with flowing dark hair tied in a messy ponytail, and a ring of dark flowers across the top of her head.

Her outfit made Haku think of Stelle, only the particular outfit this girl wore was bit more distinct, witchy, and sinister looking.

The strange lady shifted her legs and spoke.

"Stelle ended up here, right? Hmph. What a klutz.", her high-pitched, sour voice was the very definition of sickly-sweet. She pushed herself off the platform using her two boot-wearing legs, and flew in a still formation. The sinister girl dissolved into the form of black sparkles and disappeared, almost looking like she flew through a portal.

"H-hey! I think we'll be able to find Stelle and the wand if we followed her!", Haku blurted out.

Though she did have skeptical feelings tugging at her. Feelings caused by lack of knowledge of everything that was happening. Haku knew nothing about either of the strange magic girls. Which one was good? Which side should she be on at all...?

And just what was even going on in the first place?

Akaito rushed ahead of Haku while she was frozen in thought.

"Let's go. We're getting out of here."

He took his scarf off and hung it in the shape of an oval, and it magically became a portal back to the castle room. His sharp red eyes reflected determination as he jumped through.

Haku aimlessly followed Akaito through the portal back into the castle room, watching as he pulled his scarf through the mirror again and put it back on.

Haku thought that the best thing to do was simply just to go with whatever was happening, as she did think in the back of her head that things couldn't possibly get iany screwier/i around here…

But oh, alas! Haku was wrong!

The cramped castle basement, previously only inhabited by Akaito and Salsa, was now being infested by a noisy flapping herd of… chocolate chickens!

"Oh, BROTHER!", Akaito groaned as he saw the brouhaha.

"HII-YAH!", Salsa's small little hot-doggy body flew across the room as she forcefully knocked down a row of the chickens.

"I've got this covered!", she yapped, winking.

But then the row of fainted chickens suddenly began to grow in… familiar-looking sparkles.

As they became brighter and more vivid, the shape of them began to change and morph, until they reformed into… llamas with fruits growing all over their bodies!

Haku screamed and shrieked and grabbed on the the nearby wall.

"Hey! Snap out of it!", Akaito poked Haku's shoulder and yelled to her above the commotion.

"You seem to have the ability to control magic. Since all the stuff in this room was most likely created by magic, maybe you can fix this!"

"HOW!?" Haku yelled.

"Just… try and recite any random gibberish!", Akaito suggested, "Maybe you'll happen to say a magic spell that will help us!"

"B-but what if I end up saying a BAD spell?"

"Just iDO it/i!"

Haku bravely turned around and tried to catch her breath.

"Um… Super-ica… mira-kitten… magical-o… avocado!", she mumbled as the syllables came to her on the spot.

Akaito and Haku stood back and watched as the fruit llamas morphed into… PARTYING MATH TEACHERS! Blinking like color-changing lights to every color in the rainbow.

They all shook their behinds and spontaneously broke out into a song about a math party.

i"It's a big math party, don't you dare be tardy, Study and be smarty, come on everyone!

Don't fail and you won't cry, pass and you will eat pi, not the kind with radii, it'll be lots of fun!"/i

"That doesn't help, try again!", Akaito said.

Haku felt a feeling of panic return to her yet again.

"Llama-no-no, pie-circle-yo-yo… get-us-outta… I-don't-know-no!"

This time, Haku's voice began to echo, until it grew greater, until it was not her voice anymore, but a majestic sound.

Her red eyes grew a bright crimson, and all the chaos in the background slowly faded away into a bright light, not a blinding light, but a luminous glow soothing to the eyes.

The tips of Haku's snow-kissed hair lifted up, and golden lights illuminated around her, as if she were an angel.

In fact, Salsa even began to sing opera in the background to accompany the scene.

Haku opened her drooping eyes, now shining like rubies. In an elegant, clear voice, she began to speak.

"Akaito."

She had suddenly learned his name.

"Akaito… listen to me… I have something important to tell you."

Akaito's eyes began to look like garnets as he gazed. His short, dark, yet illuminated crimson hair began to sway as well.

Haku's red eyes began to resemble the sky during the time the mango-colored sun was about to dip into the horizon.

"The peanut butter is calling for me." Haku said, softly but clearly. Her voice rang out like the purest of melodies. "I must depart, because I am of the children who rubbed peanut butter on camels before it was cool. My name is emanating from the toilet of truth... Haku Yowane... Haku Yowane..."

"Hakuuu!", Akaito murmur-yelled in a soft voice much unlike him. The echo of him saying her name filled the room.

And with his long yell, the shining, dramatic atmosphere promptly disappeared, and all the chaos in the room returned even stronger!

"Ah! What the!? Uh... anyway, you have to try one more time, Haku! To get us away!", Akaito said. He was now inching backwards past the boundaries of the mirror, to where the chaos couldn't reach.

"I want you to find the circumference of this chicken."A math teacher crept up said to him.

"Aah! D-DO IT NOW, HAKU! I hate math!", Akaito screamed.

"Umm… ah, okay!", Haku began to stammer uncontrollably.

"Well... I um... ah... no... um-eh..."

Just as Haku stopped stammering for a while, a rainbow portal appeared right in front of the two and began to shine. The force of the opening was powerful, sending Haku tumbling backwards into Akaito's sturdy body.

"Haku, that's it! Your aimless stammering was a valid spell to get us out!", Akaito rang in relief, holding Haku's shoulders.

"It... WAS!?"

Akaito ignored Haku's question and hastily pushed her aside. On his feet, he immediately bounced right into the glowing circle in with his arms spread wide.

"YAHOO!", Akaito was acting more upbeat than Haku had ever seen him.

"But wait!", Haku yelled, leaning towards the portal.

"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE IT—"

Haku skipped a moment as she fell the portal whisk her in.

"GOOOOOOOEEEESSSS!"


	4. Chapter 4

"Wait!", Haku yelled, leaning her face towards the portal.

"But you don't even know where it—"

A gasp escaped from her sore throat as she felt the portal whisk her in.

"GOOOOOEEESSS!"

She flailed fantastically before tumbling right in headfirst as the glowing ring swooooshed her towards the other side and abruptly shut itself behind her. It all happened much too fast. The location of her body was shooting way ahead of her consciousness.

The scream Haku let out was echoing yards above her as she rapidly plummeted down.

At first, Haku thought that she was being sucked down by something, like a space vacum or a gigantic magnetic force. It soon came to her that it was most likely only gravity pulling her down, obviously.

In other words... she was falling. And falling, and falling, and falling...

There was nothing but silence all around, and a haunting amount of absolutely nothing was to be seen or heard below her.

Haku was terrified. Just as she was about to declare her life over, a peculiar little bottle, which said the words "drink me" descended from above her head, and then lingered there, falling the same rate as her.

She grabbed the bottle from above and yanked open the top. However, the force of gravity just made the sparkly sweet liquid inside of it splash all around her face.

Haku suddenly started glowing, as if... something was about to happen... yet nothing did and the glowing completely stopped. She suddenly found herself hitting the surface of… water?

Haku crashed through the surface of the water and plummeted a good number of feet downwards through the endless aquatic vat.

Underwater, all across her was an endless stretch of the desaturated blue color. When she looked up, she could see a faint pattern of white squares.

How could this be? The midnight blue void and the tiny, distant lights looked exactly the same as when she began falling. Haku was caught-completely off guard, yet she swam swiftly to the surface of the hauntingly clear, thin liquid. Just how deep was this water?

Or did any boundaries even exist in this place? Was this the world of forever, a world of infinite?

Endless. Did it exist? How big is it? Does endless have an end, or is endless simply endless?

It it possible for a human being to imagine endless? Would they have to imagine endlessly?

"Haku, this is no time to be thinking about deep philosophy." she said out loud to herself, partly just to make sure her vocal chords were still intact. Her voice came out very breathy.

(...oh, and by the way, "deep" philosophy. Get it? Because the water is deep...?)

Haku was suddenly feeling like Alice in Wonderland. She had loved the book when she was a child, and thought as hard as she could back to it. At one point, Alice had been floating in a pool of her own tears.

"These couldn't be my tears, right?" Haku thought. "I don't think I've ever cried enough to create something this deep. Or maybe... did I shrink? Did the bottle really do this to me?"

As Haku was in thought, something large and shadowy was swimming towards her from the immense depths below...

"Well, I guess I do cry a lot. Maybe... this entire place has something to do with me. This water represents all the tears I've shed in my life... and maybe the land of sweets represented every sweet I've ever eaten? But I am still young and my life hadn't been that long. I shouldn't have cried this much already, or eaten that many sweets even in my entire life..."

Haku was lucky to be able to swim, even though it did tire her out tremendously to be treading all alone in a deep pool. After a long bout of gasping and thinking, Haku regained her voice and suddenly remembered... the boy she had been with was missing!

"Akaito! AKAITO!" Haku cried frantically. Oh, it would have been terrible if he drowned! And it would be all Haku's fault for being so lost in thought like she was. Ooh...

Haku began to panic. "Help me… Akaito! Where are you! Where am I!?"

She grabbed on to her arm and pinched herself as hard as she could.

No use. This was still no dream.

Haku dove under the water again, trying to pick out something, anything that could be an object—or a person.

That's when she saw it. The dark mass. It was enormous, appearing only to be able to come from a depth many times enourmous as its vast size.

It was more long than it was wide. It had a terrible face and Haku screamed a great underwater yell as soon as she saw it.

She scurried on upwards, poked her head above the water, hyperventilated and swam away. She knew she couldn't leave Akaito behind, but maybe, just maybe he was on the direction she was heading.

The beast's head poked above the water, several meters behind Haku. It's face was as wide as a wall and it had gleaming piercing yellow eyes. It had a serpent-like physique, which meant it probably had a long tongue that could lap Haku up as if she were a pill... nooo! She summoned all her body strength and propelled herself far away through the water.

"Akaito!" she was still screaming out.

She dared to sink her head down into the water and try to find him, or an exit... or even better, Akaito AND an exit!

Haku began to kick downwards, when suddenly... she began to glow the same way as she did when she opened the strange bottle back when she was falling!

She instantly felt a pleasant chill crawl down her back, and something trying to emerge from her skin right below her backbones. The thin layers blossomed out and spread wider painlessly on her back, shining in smooth light as they unfolded. Strong, wide wings.

The mysterious new wings guided Haku on their own, sending her shooting through the water with ease, away, downwards away from the dreadful face.

"It must have been the 'drink me' bottle that gave me these wings!" she thought, holding her breath.

Woosh! The large wings, proportioning her body like a butterfly's, had her soar through the water with such momentous force that she felt euphoria, feeling it in her body.

Once she was sure she escaped the colossal creature without being seen by it, Haku finally spotted a red dot a distance down below her.

"It's a red toilet!" she thought.

"No wait... it's Akaito!" her mind yelped. The wings swam her to the deep, immersive depth in no time, until she could clearly make out that it was his body. When she finally got a look at his face, his eyes were closed and everything was still. Haku froze in terror.

"Aka...ito? Please... be okay."

That was when a strange current grabbed a hold of Haku, and dragged her and Akaito at high speed. Haku's wings grew separated from her back, and were left behind in the deep pool.

"My wings!" Haku shouted in her mind as the silver and purple thin plates were becoming smaller from her view.

Suddenly, the two were sprayed out of a mysterious square into the seat of a roller coaster cart!?

The sky above was orange, and the sun shone a majestic indigo. Haku breathed in the sight.

"Akaito!", Haku exclaimed.

"Haku!?", Akaito finally opened his eyes grew shocked.

Akaito was alive! Haku squealed in relief.

But before either could say anymore, the roller coaster began to blast off, and soon enough, it flew right off the tracks, flying high into the sky.

Haku only felt a bit tense, but next to her, Akaito was shrieking and screaming like a little kid who just found out ice cream no longer existed.

The roller-coaster flew through a city. The buildings were all tall, and in various shades of pastel. The water they were rising out of reflected the buildings extremely clear. Looking closer, one would notice that the reflections were the opposite color of the building.

Haku felt her mind twist and turn at the surrealness.

The roller coaster slammed into an invisible wall with a hard and abrupt stop, and sent Haku and Akaito soaring off the seat, until they fell into a mysterious ring that warped them inside a house, ultimately landing them right in the middle of… a game show?

There were four contestant seats, and the host was standing right above the two disorientated fly-ins who were thoroughly puzzled about what was going on.

"Oh, great!", the person running the game show—a boy with wild blond hair and eyes the color of shallow ocean water, wearing a red snow cap and a black shirt that said "YOLO" in gold comic sans, announced excitedly. He didn't even seem to register the fact Haku and Akaito literally just went "thud" on the ground and probably were kinda... hurt.

"We needed two more people to start the show! Now, let's get started with Prince Comic Sans's SWAG competition! Huh?"

Len took a nice, observant look at Haku.

"No! It can't be!", he yelled, shocked.

"Sh-shee looks just like my long-lost rival, the Princess of Segoe Script!"

* * *

Meanwhile, through a mysterious crystal ball...

_"It looked like my magical wing solution saved her..."_

* * *

**A/N**: Comic Sans and Segoe Script are different fonts. The joke here has to do with an inside joke where Len and Haku fight over which font is better. :p (Comic Sans V.S. Segoe Script)


	5. Chapter 5

Haku, who had been collapsed on the hard, glittery floor on the edge of the camera stage, flinched once again from how surreal this trip had been so far.

"No! I'm not a mage, or a princess… I'm just a normal girl, and all I want to do is get home where things make sense, and it seems impossible..."

The blond boy backed away as Haku began to break into an exasperated yell. Suddenly she was frustrated with being here, with all these crazy things happening to her again and again.

Haku was frustrated because she got more fantasy that she had EVER bargained for!

The boy spoke again.

"But... enter the game show anyway! My real name is Len, and I have just the thing!", the boy said in a (possibly fake) cheerful tone, after he had finished backing away.

"The third place prize in this swag competition is… magical transportation to your home! No matter where it is, you'll be at your true home and in no time at all! Not that you'd—"

Haku began to speak, cutting back Prince Comic Sans' words. (AKA Len)

"I-I'm not entering the swag contest…", Haku said weakly. Her voice was thickening from keeping back tears.

"Please… please understand that I need to get back home… will you please be kind enough to allow me? Does it seem… selfish…?

"...not falling for it.", the kid suddenly said with a cold smile.

"Wuh?", Haku did something between a gasp, whimper, and a "why?"

"Princess Segoe Script. The Font Princess with the least amount of swag amongst them all!", Prince Comic Sans announced to Haku's face.

"I mean, you have even LESS swag than Princess Times New Roman!"

And as the gold prince said that, his entire audience ruptured into laughter.

"I… I'm not some d-dumb princess of fonts!", Haku yelled.

This was one of few moments where Haku would act aggressive. Her frustration and anxious feelings were peaking at this point.

The audience began to "ooh" with the tension of some starting drama.

"I know absolutely n-n-nothing about th-this, I know nothing about this strange world! I shouldn't be familiar to you at all!", Haku was dazed.

"Wha-hoh. What'cha talking 'bout? You're not even from this… world?" The young obnoxious king cackled…

"I knew it! Princess Segoe Script is inhuman! Come on, my joyous kingdom, let's all taunt her!"

"YOLO!" the peasants screamed. "It stands for You're O Loser! OH!"

Haku, who was under so much pressure that the ability to think straight had flown away from her, promptly took the first thing she could think of to throw at Prince Comic Sans—the hair bow that tied her ponytail. She snatched it out of her inconveniently long hair, and let it loose at him.

The audience broke into a wave of laughter again.

"She threw her hair ornament!"

"Like that's gonna even do anything!"

The bow flimsily floated and fell to the ground. Prince Comic Sans swooped it up, and said with a smug smirk, "You can only have this back until you beat me in the contest."

Haku felt appalled by Len's attitude. As if her treasured hair bow was a piece of trash…

A single tear began to slide down Haku's cheek.

"Th-that's mine…", she choked out.

"She's crying now?", the audience mocked.

"Over a ribbon…"

"Ha, what a pansy."

"That ribbon is v-very special to me.", Haku jerked, in a tone of voice filled with suppressed emotion. "It was given to me by someone very special to me who isn't around anymore…"

"Then why'd ya throw it?", a person from the audience yelled at Haku.

Haku hung her head in shame. She truly was… an idiot.

"Enough sappy drama already!", Comic Sans yelled.

"Now on with the SWAG!"

"Stelle and Anise are team number ONE! Swagless Girl and her little red-head friend are team numbah TWO!"

With that sudden announcement, a drumroll sounded, the stage fell dark, bright stage lights began to shine on Haku, Akaito, and two random people in the back of the room…

At a closer look, the two random people happened to be… Star Messenger Stelle, and the other strange magic girl! Her name was Anise?

"First contest will be… DANCING TO OPPA GANGNAM STYLE!"

"WHOOOOO!", the audience went wild with applause, and all the spoghtlights changed color and moved all across the game stage.

Haku's heart was beating with pounding force.

She already proved herself an idiot, she had extreme stage fright, she knew she couldn't dance no matter what, and on top of that, she didn't know if she could ever make it back home!

She glanced at all the others.

Akaito had an aggressive look on his face. Almost as if he was upset with Haku for being such an idiot.

And the fact that Haku would completely and utterly fail at the swag contest would make her seem like the world's worst failure—which deep inside, she surely believed she was.

Stelle and the other girl were glaring at each other, you could practically see the lasers coming from their piercing eyes.

"What do you mean I have to work with YOU, Antagonistic Anise!?"

"I should be saying that to you… UN-Stellar... STELLE!"?

The electronic dance music of Gangnam Style blasted across the auditorium and vibrated the floors. The lights shone in crazy rainbow colors as Stelle and the other girl began to nail every move perfectly.

Akaito, in the corner, danced… reluctantly, yet stylishly.

It practically screamed… "lone wolf bad boy". Like a boss…

"Oh my gosh…", Haku's thoughts pounded as her teeth chattered. "I never even watched the video! I don't know how the dance goes…"

Pressure which would metaphorically weigh thousands of pounds dawned down on Haku.

"You can still do it!", she attempted to tell herself with a fist. "All you have to do is manage to look cool… like Akaito!"

But alas… to put it simply, Haku didn't exactly pull off the "cool" she was aiming for.

She did things such as hopping around like a rabbit and rotating her arms. She didn't really know any dance moves, so she just improvised…

"Whoop, shoop!" she mumbled. "Eheheh..."

"Um... maybe I should try to remember the ballet lessons I did when I was 6 years old…", she thought to herself.

This time, she tried standing on one leg while (barely) pulling the other one up to her head (more like her side).

"Gyaaah!", she tumbled to the cold, hard surface of the stage.

"That move is much easier to do in the water…"

She looked behind her.

Stelle and Anise were laughing at Haku, glaring at each other again once they noticed the other laughing. Akaito was glaring even harder, which only made his dancing look… hotter.

Haku could feel everything making her blush.

Her rarely-ever-accessed competitive feelings unlocked.

She twirled and did a cartwheel—the most complicated thing she was even capable of pulling off…

Akaito did two backflips in a row. Haku began to watch in awe, turning even redder with some strange mix of emotions—mostly self-shame…

Stelle and Anise could LEVITATE. They flew around the stage, each trying to outperform each other. Stelle was twirling and flashing cute poses. Anise was twirling her broomstick and doing dynamic moves.

Haku then tripped over a stair, went flying right into Akaito, and Anise's broomstick flew from her hands and under the two, lifting them up.

Haku dangled on the edge, screaming and panicking at the sensation of gravity threatening her to fall.

Akaito pulled himself up, stood on top of the broomstick, and BREAKDANCED.

Then, he jumped down, and although he was 50 feet high, he landed right in between Stelle and Anise, and ended in a great pose.

Haku tried to at least do something. After much straining, she flipped herself over and hung by her knees—and screamed some more.

Anise snapped her fingers and the broomstick disappeared, and Haku fell…

…

…right into Akaito's arms.

…and then the floor under them gave away, and sent them both falling. It was only about a couple of yards.

Akaito tried to catch his breath, while Haku was still whimpering like a puppy. Around them was pitch-black, and smelled of… pears. And a hint of nail polish. Not a usual musty smell, perhaps must smelled different depending on what... world you were in?

When suddenly…

"I'm le grumpy old troll, who lives under the staaaaaage~ hey!"

"Huh? Who-who's singing? Akaito?", Haku asked, tensely.

"It's not me.", Akaito answered.

"If y'all wanna get back up, all you have to do is thiiis, all you hafta do is thiiiiiis!", the voice continued. "answer my question!", it snapped.

Haku and Akaito froze.

The voice came back, saying "Now, one of y'all has to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" correctly, and I'll allow you to get back up on the stage."

Haku's mind froze. "I… um…",

She tried to visualize the word in her head, but it became hard for her since it was so long and complicated.

"A…N-T…I…D…Sta…no… S-T…"

"A-N-T-I-D-I-S-E-S-T-A-B-L-I-S-H-M-E-N-T-A-R-I-A-N-I-S-M.", Akaito said

behind her, saying the letters in rapid-fire.

"Correct! You're a smart one!", the troll's voice said. "Good luck with that stupid girlfriend of yours."

The troll shone magical gold light on Haku and Akaito and lifted them above the hole they created.

"She is NOT my girlfriend!", Akaito yelled into the hole.

Haku's feelings fell. Not because of what Akaito said, but because of the mean and aggressive way he yelled it, as if he didn't even want anything to do with Haku.

"That stupid Gary-Stu…" Haku menaced in her head. "Wait… but if someone in real life is a Gary-Stu character… that's like, a compliment… GAH."

On the other side of the stage, Prince Comic Sans had changed into an apron and a chef hat, and put dishes on the contestant's tables. A breeze effect billowed his apron as he flashed a mean-looking pose.

Haku couldn't keep the words inside her. "That's swag? Heh." She cringed as soon as she realized Len heard her.

"Like YOU know anything about swag.", the blonde boy responded.

"OKAY! The next competition is to cook food for the audience! With STYLE!"

Another wave of yells came from the audience.

"Every one of you will receive a recipe! All the ingredients are scattered around across the auditorium! It's up to you to find the ingredients in any of the rooms in this building, cook it right, add your own touch and make it taste like SWAG!"

"...swag probably doesn't taste good anyway.", Haku mumbled disdainfully.

Len raised his finger and 4 different recipe papers popped onto the desks.

Anise's dish was "Moe Moe Pink Puff Pie"

Stelle's dish was "Spicy Hot Glitter Cuppy-cakes"

Akaito had to cook "Fluffy Fluffy Sparkle Crème Brulee"

And Haku's dish was "Desu Desu Rainbow Creamy Flan".

"What the heck kind of foods are these?", Anise said in disgust.

"I don't know... maybe something that'd look good on yo face!", Stelle snapped at her.

"I think they'd look best down YOUR pants!", Anise yelled.

"But YOU'RE the one who actually wears pants!", Stelle remarked.

"GRRRRR!"

"Okay… it says it needs flour. But… flan doesn't use flour! I-I think...", Haku thought.

"Maybe this is a trick… they're trying to trick me…", eventually she ignored this thought, and looked for flour.

Haku found flour... but it was tucked in Anise's arm.

So Haku, being herself, waddled up to the sinister magical girl, and said...

...

"E-excuse me..."

Anise gasped.

"How DARE you say such inappropriate and vulgar words to me!? Well... 'EXCUSE ME' to you, too!" Hmph!

Anise flipped her hair and walked away.

Haku still tried to negotiate.

"Um... Hey... d-do you think... we can share the flour? Because I need it to, and"

"Share?" Anise grew an outraged expression again.

"SHARE!? You are the most VULGAR person I've ever met!"

Anise unleashed a sinister ink-colored beam to Haku, giving the poor girl a huge static boom.

"Oh..." Haku felt too weak to get up again.

Len shook his head.

"Don't you know that "excuse me" and "share" are two of the most vulgar words known to Antagonists?"

Meanwhile, Akaito was getting eggs; one of the ingredients he needed for Fluffy Fluffy Sparkle Crème Brulee.

He was in the chicken room, warming the chickens with his HOTNESS, so that they'd lay eggs.

Stelle was singing to cinnamon plants in order for them to give her the spice she needed for Spicy Hot Glitter Cuppy-cakes.

Eventually, Haku ran across a flour flounder in the kiddie-pool room.

"I am the flour flounder." it said in an echoing majestic voice, unfitting to its muffin-like appearance.

"I can magically make magic bags of flour magically appear magically." it said.

"But only if you do the chicken dance."

Haku sighed, and did what flour flounder said. Flour flounder then summoned a bag of flour by singing some strange opera.

Haku thanked the fish and felt relieved to have one ingredient.

"Next… cream"

As soon as Haku read the next ingredient, she was being lifted up and away by... hundereds of butterflies!? They lifted her up into dome-like ceiling covered in jewels.

The butterflies began to sing...

"We can give you buttercream,

Provided you'd do anything

And in this little song we sing,

Do all we ask simultaneously."

Haku kept her ears peeled, the butterflies were going to give her cream if she did what they said...

"In a loud voice, you will scream'

"I am the banana queen!"

Haku did what the butterflies told her.

"I AM THE BANANA QUEEEN!" she yelled loudly.

Suddenly the butterflies began to laugh and crack up so much, they fused together and became... a bottle of buttercream.

Haku was suddenly standing right on the ground.

She stood there with a poker-face.

"That was quite strange."

Well. Only one more ingredient.

"Caramel... weird. Doesn't flan need eggs though?"

Haku suddenly squinted saw something out of place on top of a tall, crystal-y staircase. It was... a package of caramel!

She ran up there, when suddenly... three bunnies fell out of nowhere! A cream-colored one, a white one, and a brown one.

And then, (you guessed it.) They began to sing.

"We are the caramel bunnies

I don't care if you don't think we're funny

If you want that caramel in your tummy

Then dance and be a honey-honey!"

The brown bunny flicked a button, and CaramellDansen started playing really loudly. All of a sudden, Haku noticed she was tied to the wall.

The lights suddenly flicked off, and Haku was surrounded in flames. All while a song as happy as CaramellDansen was still playing...

"DANCE HAKU, DANCE!"

Suddenly, the bunnies turned into a hollow-eyed puppets. SCARY puppets. Their eyes were sinisterly hollow and their mouths chattered as they opened and closed. Their voices had no emotion as they said in unison...

"DANCE, HAKU. DAAAAANCE."

Evil laughter was the icing on the dark, tormenting cake...

Haku was crazily doing the "CaramellDansen" dance as the bunnies laughed evily and spun around her until the song was over.

To shorten this, the time had come to present the ingredients to Len. (or as we will call him from now on.)

Laughs from the audience burst as Haku scurried along the stage, gasping for breath.

She was in last place, taking about 20 minutes more than the others.

"But... I... a bunch of freaky things happened!" she said, tiredly, as an excuse.

"Yeah?" Len said, raising an eyebrow. "SO!? Akaito had to battle a chainsaw maniac using nothing but a toy wand, he swam across an exact replica of the dead sea, tightroped across the Foreverest Canyon while wearing a salmon suit, and then he had to tap dance to Elvis Presly songs while dressed as antidisestablishmentarianism."

"How do you dress as antidisestablishmentarianism anyway?" Haku asked.

"It took tons of skill and swag..." Len said, with a face filled with manly tears. "Oh, by the way, all your little journeys were shown to the audience on on-stage TVs."

Haku flushed red.

That would've mean the audience witnessed her singing an embarrassing song as she looked for ingredients.

And also, when she wiped her nose on an expensive robe. And also when she burped a little bit. And when she tripped over her own feet and made a sound like a kitten, and when she skipped around like a little girl while singing in Japanese.

And indeed, the audience was snickering.

Haku hid her head in shame.

"So. ARE YOU GONNA COOK THIS FOOD, OR WHAT?" Len said, enthusiastically.


	6. Chapter 6

_"So. Are you going to cook this food, or what?"_

As Len announced the words and striked his striking pose, the stage suddenly transformed... Curtains fell across the back; elegantly cute, yellow lacy curtains with beige bows.

The hard smooth floor magically dissolved into a soft checker of black and white. A table popped up right in the. Behind the tables, four ovens appeared, each a different pastel color.

Pop! Pop! Poof!

Aprons were magically appearing on all the contestants! They had puffy arm-sleeves and pastel-color trim. Each one sported a cute pattern.

"Poof!"

"Ah... ah!"

Haku contentedly lifted her arms, rubbing the fine silk, examining the colorful and cute garment she was now wearing. With a big puffy ribbon hanging right down from the center of her neck, cute buttons trailing all down her torso to her legs, she felt most unlike she ever had. For once, Haku felt... cute!

Bemused Haku had to feel a small bit pleased in the outfit and by the atmostphere. They were... interesting. It was comfy, it made her feel like a character. She resisted the bubbling urge to smile, twirl around, and flash a cute pose...

"I am the magical cooking idol of dreams! Haku-chuu, meow!"

Yikes! It would've been scary if she did that!

She spun around slowly and demurely, fixing her views all on the atmostphere all around. Stelle was wearing a cute dress, so was Anise... even Akaito... wait a minute, AKAITO?

"Pfft... Pwahaha!"

A sputtering giggle burst out of Haku's mouth before she could even think.

Akaito's apron was a pale red, striped, and had ruffles on the edge. Several hearts were printed on it, and right in the middle of the apron-piece was a print of a chili pepper with round, cute eyes. Akaito scowled and shook his head at the amused Haku.

Stelle's skirt resembled a big puffy cupcake, her outfit sporting sweet polka-dotted bows complimenting massive frilly collars.

Anise's outfit was gothic, cute yet intimidating. Sharp collars, dark ruffles, and angles aligned her striking black gown.

"And all four of you will be putting all your passion into cooking these foods. Because these foods need passion. Your spirit will cause the food to heat up, and your heart will make them tasty."

Len gave a sweet little grin before he suddenly scowled and yelled again.

"So you better fill it with emotion!"

Four cards each fell on everyone's cooking table.

"Here are the instructions to do cooking."

"Huh?" Haku looked at the card and felt confused. "These aren't traditional cooking procedures. Nothing on them says to heat, or mix..."

"Well, of course!" Len said. "This is a sheet of dance moves! If you flip to the back, you'll see the lyrics you'll have to sing."

"What?" Haku flipped to the back of the sheet and saw that a song was written.

_Flutter, flutter, fluttering~_

_Sweetly melting on your mouth~_

_She will increase your happiness, the dream-colored patissiere!_

Haku imagined Akaito singing the lyrics and doubled over laughing.

"Akaito... haha! Fluttering, haha!"

"You won't be laughing for long..." Len smirked.

"So... h-how does this work?" Haku bashfully walked up to Len and asked.

"You wear this special hat..." Len pulled out a hat that resembled the bottom of a tin dome. "You put the ingredients in the hat, wear it on your head, cover it, and then the ingredients will magically turn into the food if you dance and sing well enough!"

"Cool!" Haku exclaimed without thinking.

* * *

"These dance steps look kind of ridiculous..." Haku muttered to herself once she scanned the pictures and footsteps on the back of the card.

"Of course they're ridiculous." Len said. "Remember the dancing contest we had back there? And remember the dance YOU did? This is that exact dance you made up on the spot."

Haku's mouth fell open.

"I have to... do it again?"

Haku's face turned red and a wave of laugher rose up from the crowd.

Embarrassed, Haku did her dance in slow motion, flushing redder as the seconds ticked past.

"I can't... I just can't do it. I feel the audience's stares... they burn. I feel like... a fool..."

Haku suddenly heard sparkly music.

"Now you have to sing." Len said.

"Flutter, flutter, fluttering..."

Haku had a sweet voice, but she also had a tendency to get nervous. And when Haku got nervous, the voice coming out of her sounded like a kitten's cry. That is, if the kitten was being impaled with poisonous spikes while being forced to eat brussles sprouts.

Haku soon noticed everyone around was covering their ears.

"Ah..." Haku felt like she was cracking and falling to the ground. Her throat promptly blocked her voice and she turned away to the wall again.

"Let Akaito teach you how to sing." Len said, pointing to him.

Akaito cleared his throat, sighed, and opened his mouth, and then... a golden baritone voice overflowed out of it like thick, rich maple syrup.

Haku's mouth fell open until her face resembled a urinal.

Nope, it wasn't even funny. It wasn't funny at all to hear Akaito singing this song! Instead, it was just flat-out impressive.

_Flutter, flutter, flutteriiiiing~_

_Sweetly melting on your mooouuth~_

_She will increase your happiness, the dream-colored patissieeeeeere!_

Akaito rolled his 'r' on the last syllable, and once he stopped singing, everybody rose into tremendous applause. Even the ingredients in the bowl on his head began to clap!

"Yum, Akaito's food is gonna come out soooo good because of his good dancing and singing." Len swooned.

"S-s-so..." Haku racked her head. "I have to sound like Akaito then! If it'll do me good... then is worth a try."

Haku cleared her throat dramatically, took in three deep breaths, arched her whole body, and made her voice as low as it possibly could go.

"FLUTTER, FLUTTER, FLUTTERING..."

Haku couldn't keep up the low voice for long and soon began hacking until the rolled on the ground. Everybody laughed.

"An Akaito knockoff!" Len sputtered.

Haku sighed and buried her face in her mittens. She just wanted to be out of here.

* * *

"First and least, we present Haku's... rubbish."

The event had ended and everyone had finished cooking. The food was now to be judged.

Haku wanted to crawl into a ball like an armadillo and roll somewhere far, far away.

Len cringed, and put his hand on the handle which held the tin dome, concealing the flan Haku cooked...

But it turns out, the flan cooking did not go that well. It wasn't flan. It was a little bit large for that. It was curled up, had a small face, and was covered in fur. The brown striped tail on its end wafted about ever so slightly. It was... a kitten?

The tiny kitten, laying peacefully in the tray, had a cream-colored body and little brown paws. It was a baby, judging from its size.

"Huh?" Haku shook her head bewildered.

The kitten stretched it's small pudgy body, playfully sat up, and looked at Haku with its clear blue droopy eyes.

"Myeah..." it squeaked. It barely even had a developed voice yet.

Haku glanced back at the small creature, feeling her heart flutter from the kitten's fluffy cuteness.

"It's... just a little kitten..." Haku thought. "I thought it was going to be a huge mess! But... a kitten? How?"

"Aww..." the audience was looking at the kitten too. The small cat began to lick its paws daintily, then started playing curiously with its long striped tail.

Claps, cheers and "aww"s arose from the audience.

"Aww, she cooked up such a cute kitten, can you believe it?" One member squealed.

"How though...?" Haku felt overwhelmed, though the audience was reacting to her positively, at least. "I guess... maybe I even did something better than flan?"

A loud rumbling sound suddenly shook the air, and Haku soon realized it was the kitten's stomach. Such a loud rumble from such a tiny stomach! Such a deep rumble that it quieted the audience and caused everyone to look around in cold suspense.

The irrisistable scent of sweets lingered in the air, and the hungry kitten sniffed them up greedily. With sudden and surprising agility, it leaped from its tin platter to the tables, gulping down the delicacy on each platter in one massive slurp from its tiny tongue.

"No! Wait!" Len yelled to the frisky feline as he sprang after it. "We can't judge the contest without tasting those! You can't eat them!"

It was no use, and with each gulp, the kitten grew bigger, until it resembled a large cat, like a lion! A mane was even growing around it's neck... gold, like the color of flan.

Soon, it was able to emit a huge roar. In a split second, it lugged it's huge body effortlessly and pounced into the audience.

The audience, who was cooing seconds before, now flailed and screamed in horror.

People turned into jelly as they scrambled out from their rows of seats, their body parts flimsily wiggling as fast as they could in an act of getting away.

Haku watched the scene in disbelieving horror. Just how? How did she happen to cook a monstrous cat when she was aiming on cooking a simple flan?

Haku knew right then she lost the contest. Now she could never couldn't make it back home.

She made a fool of herself in front of a crowd.

She put the whole crowd in danger! The lion...

She'll probably be forever infamous.

Haku wanted to do something, but she was petrified... the lion could eat her as if SHE were a piece of flan! But she had to... Haku was the one who created it. The least she could do was to stop it!

"Even if I am going to risk myself..."

Haku's heartbeat rose to a crescendo.

As soon as Haku decided she was going to have to do something, Stelle's voice priced the air. She stood up gallantly and wore a serious expression on her face.

"NO! I will not let this monster destroy the happiness of people!"

Stelle swiftly climbed onto her broom, soaring into the air above the audience. She approached the cat with dynamic force and the tip of her broom plunked the large feline right in its small sensitive nose.

"...Whoopsy-daisy, hehehe!" Stelle dismissed her accident with a giggle.

The cat flinched as it got hit, then roared until its face was red. It certainly was not amused. It's cries were painful to everybody listening. The cat's whole body became redder, and redder. And redder and redder and redder. Until it was so red, that not even Haku could even BLUSH such a shade of red.

...and that was a pretty deep red, believe me.

The cat's teeth grew. Huge, sharp, pearly swords of teeth. With another giant roar, wings grew on its back. It's eyes thinned out and became completely black. The fluff on its tail burst completely into flame.

"Aaaaah!" Haku was screaming, running frantically towards the exit.

"Please..." she thought, "Stelle, please be able to take care of this... I'm so sorry! Stelle!"

By now, the entire game show's audience had evacuated, including Haku, Len, Anise and Akaito, who were all huddled in a spot out in the back.

Stelle was now alone in the collapsing auditorium, with everything hot, red, and filled with fiery, disintegrating tension.

Embers radiated from the monster's eyes, and globs of fire spewed from its huge, dark mouth. The beast had its spearlike onyx eyes piercing into Stelle. Puffs of smoke dispersed from its nostrils. It looked like it was going to charge straight at the small, pink-haired girl at any second.

Stelle, however, was the magical girl of love and justice. She refused to back down!

"KIRAKIRA, DEFENSE! Happy Shield!" she summoned all her spirit to yell.

As she said those words, a transparent pink bubble surrounded her, just as the monster dashed full speed ahead. Its hard, brittle teeth hit Stelle's defense bubble with the loudest clank imaginable.

"WRRAAAAH!" the monster shrieked in pain.

It's white, white, sharp teeth began to crumble like candy after such an impact.

Huge chunks fell to the ground.

The monster breathe a huge glob of fire whichmelted the ceiling, and flew far, far away...

...

...

"Haku Yowane. You're terrible, just terrible. You brought a monster in our world! Our world which was already in danger of losing peace, YOU MADE IT WORSE!"

Stelle screamed to Haku once she got up and found the rest of the people.

"I..."

Haku promptly burst into tears. She couldn't talk, it was no use. She couldn't even apologize, no matter how much she wanted to. The sounds coming out of her sounded disgusting.

Haku turned her head around, put her shaking foot forward, and began to run away.

Everyone only stared forward until the sobbing girl was out of sight, into the trees. She was gone. As if she had disappeared with the wind.

"I mean, what did she PUT in that flan!?" Stelle groaned after a bit of silence.

"Flower?" Anise said on the side. "I remembered that. The one spelled f-l-o-w-e-r by the way."

"Flower? F-L-O-W-E-R!?" Stelle erupted.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE HER, SHE CAN'T READ!? F-l-o-u-r and f-l-o-w-e-r. It's an obvious difference!"

"Exactly..." Len agreed. "She can't even spell antidisestablishmentarianism. She should go back to kiddygarden."

"She should know that the one what grows from the ground is flour. You know. The plant." Stelle spat. "The kind that's POWDERY and starchy is spelled f-l-o-w-e-r. The recipe had it spelled like "f-l-o-u-r-s", so therefore, she needed to put the PLANT in."

"Maybe that isn't the case..." Akaito mentioned, more stoic than anyone else in the group. "I've heard before that in some of the other worlds out there, it's the opposite. The one that grows from the ground is spelled f-l-o-w-e-r. Maybe Haku didn't know. She is from another world after all."

"You know." Anise mentioned, crossing her arms. "Well, I'm telling this to you too late, but... Me? I'm happy Haku cooked up that monster."

She smiled a sinister smile to go with her darkly charismatic voice.

"Yup, I'm a VILLAN, in case you hadn't noticed. My goal is to destroy all happiness all over the world, and this monster was just the thing I needed. Plus, villains like me shouldn't be hanging around good guys like you."

Anise hopped on her black broom and raised herself into the air.

"Toodles!", she said, her voice sickly sweet, echoing throughout the broad air above. Anise swiftly flew out of sight.

"...Okay then." the remaining three said once the dark magical girl was out of their view.

Stelle was still fuming, her face was still frozen to that of a fed-up one.

"I am NEVER going to forgive that Haku. She can be Anise's apprentice for all I care. And this all started because of..." Stelle instantly froze.

"Wait... wasn't... I the one who... gave her access into this... world?" Stelle shivered.

"Nice going." said Len, with a bad poker face. "By the way... Akaito? Aren't you gonna say anything? Aren't you going to say bad things about Haku too? Akaito...? Akaito?"

* * *

"A stupid mistake… that's who I am. And all I'll ever be…"

Haku ran far, far away from everything, until she was nowhere, with nothing.

She had sprinted, and was still sprinting for quite a long time. She must've been operating on the extra adrenaline caused from all those feelings.

"I don't deserve to wear this pretty dress." Haku muttered through tears, stopping suddenly to tear off the easily-torn silk and throw it to the ground. She was relieved to look down to see her normal clothes on her again, her familiar purple hoodie and black bellbottoms. Even though the ribbon that tied her ponytail was now lost, the sight of her normal outfit gave her a wistful brush of being home.

Home... where Haku lived a normal peaceful life without being thrown into these odd, stressful situations. Even though home had been lonely, it was nothing like this. What is this place, Haku thought. Why did nobody here seem to like her?

Her eyes were watering over the loss of her ribbon-it had been her everything. It was her treasure.

It was her grandmother's final gift to her before she passed away.

The last words she said to Haku had been about the ribbon itself.

"As long as you wear this ribbon in your hair, you'll never be apart from me." She told, as she tied the bow into Haku's hair. "Magic will be with you, making sure you're always smiling. If you believe in it, this ribbon might just help your dreams come true. And I should know-I used to wear it, after all."

_"Magic will be with you..."_

Haku had believed in everything her grandmother said about magic, because she was the most magical person Haku ever knew. Her words were healing and uplifting, yet always shrouded in mystery. Haku knew that the ribbon she gave her must have been filled with her magic. The magical ribbon had helped her through so many rough times, just by being there.

She not only gifted Haku with a ribbon; she gifted her with her magical soul.

Now that the treasured ribbon was gone, Haku couldn't fight the negative thoughts. They filled her mind until she drowned in them. All the things Haku hated about herself, all the doubts she had about her life...

_"In the stories I've read where girls go to strange lands... I'm nothing like the heroine._

_They're strong, smart, capable... and people look up to them for who they are._

_They overcome things in a beautiful way, never giving up or losing hope... always finding a way._

_Me, I'm none of these things. I don't have what it takes to ever make it back home._

_I don't have what it takes to be the heroine._

_I fail at everything I try; getting good grades, making friends..._

_I'm hopelessly weak, nothing but a cowardly crybaby._

_And now I've created a monster and put this world in danger... it all happened just because of me! Because I'm so clumsy and useless!"_

Haku threw herself into a secluded spot under a tree. All the bottled-up emotions promptly burst out of her as if she were a thrown water balloon, sending her sobbing into her sleeves.

Her sobs were wretched with loneliness and panic, unlike the quiet tears she would shed any other time she cried. This was the kind of painful crying where her entire body shook and the noises she made were uncontrollable and erratic. The kind that never felt good to let out. The kind that felt like it was never going to stop. Eventually, Haku's sleeves were soaked with tears and she still didn't feel any better at all.

Haku couldn't remember the last time she cried like this.

The only reason she stopped a for a while was because she was exhausted. She forced her body to stop shaking and hiccupping and tried to catch her breath. Her breaths were shaky, yet they helped her maintain her composure. She felt heavy and numb.

Haku physically felt as if she had swum an entire marathon. She was certain her face and eyes were probably puffy and beet-red. So she just looked straight ahead, keeping back any more tears, hoping the clean air would return her face to normal.

As she stared into the space, she examined the strange land all around her. It certainly looked like the middle of nowhere.

The entire place was just an eerily white background. It had a texture, though it was faint. Was it a bumpy or paper texture, Haku wondered.

It was almost as if it was… a huge blank canvas. In the background, faintly, were buildings. Two-dimensional-looking buildings made out of colorful, simple shapes. Like paper cut-outs. Peach-colored squares, magenta parallelograms, pear-green circles. The tree Haku sat under was colorful too, with a textured brown trunk and leaves of all different kinds of shapes and shades. Triangular, curcular... The light shining through all the different patches of leaves made the ground below her sparkle.

It almost looked like an illustration from a picture book, like the ones her grandmother would illustrate. It brought over an easy feeling that dwelled in her slowly like a subtle breeze.

"I ended up somewhere very different, didn't I?", she thought, finally shifting her mind off things. She took into the view, and the tranquility managed to calm her down a bit.

"Yet this is quite the sight… I've always wanted to visit a world inside my dreams. I guess this is pretty close to it."

Haku's tenseness began to fade away in small bits when she realized she was talking to her her grandmother. She still felt her presence, even though she was long gone. It must've been magic. It certainly had to be magic.

"I'm on an adventure, even though it's a very stressful, sudden one and I have no idea what's going on... it's like that movie, Spirited Away?" Haku giggled. All the stuff that happened so far was terrible, but she was laughing at it now? Was she going crazy...?

"Only I'm not in HAKU's place at all. I'm Chihiro." She cracked a laugh at her own pun about her name.

Suddenly, a drop of some sort plopped right besides Haku. It seemed too thick to be a raindrop…

"Ack! Bird poop?", she cringed and flinched away. She saw that the plop was a bright blue, but that still didn't mean anything! This land was so crazy that the bird's poop here probably was technicolor!

Haku looked from above, and saw that the tall, symmetrical tree she was sitting under was growing many colorful bulbs. Ah, so the drop must've came from there...

Inspecting the drop closer, Haku saw that the drop of strange juice looked like watercolor paint.

She stood up, eye-level to one of the branches. From this close, she could see them… sparkling. Her eyes began sparkling too. The colors were plentiful, from the classic reds and blues, to rare shades of mauves and teals and platinums that Haku had rarely seen in her life.

She curiously picked up an indigo bulb, her favorite color, and squeezed it softly. A feathery tip, almost like a paintbrush segment popped out. It was nothing like she ever seen. But it was great, interesting... wonderful. It made the small child deep inside her immensely happy.

"This is… almost like paiting tools… hm?

The ground under Haku was white and textureless. She took several of the strange bulbs and started to draw with them on the ground, the ground acting as if it were paper.

Haku enjoyed painting, although she wasn't exactly the greatest artist, it pulled her thoughts in and calmed her down. In fact, she couldn't remember a time where drawing a picture didn't soothe her. Sometimes it locked her in such a deep trance, the real world faded out of sight. Her world became the picture, just her mind and the picture...

Soon enough, after a lot of soft dabs and flowery strokes, it became a cartoony picture of a sad girl with droopy round eyes, reflecting Haku's feelings at the moment.

"So sad…" she thought. Haku began to draw flowers and star-shapes around the girl she painted, as if to try to cheer up her own drawing—as if that drawing was… her.

"Wow...", came a sudden voice from behind Haku that somewhat startled her. It was a high-pitched voice sounding like it belonged to a little girl.

"That's so pretty.", she said. "I wish I could paint like you."

Haku froze for a while, not knowing how to respond to the stranger.

"Wh-why would you want to paint like me?" She said on instinct. "I suck at it!"

"No you don't.", the soft voice said, coming from behind her.

Haku looked up, and she was now face-to-face with this girl. She had a round, childish face, low lavender pigtails, and a purple bunny hood around her face. Haku flinched, although not giving much wonder to how the girl shifted positions so quick.

The strange, nice girl took a bulb-brush, ducked down, and drew a smile over the drawing's small frown. The gesture was so small yet kind, it had Haku smiling too. Although just a little bit, it healed her heart.

"Thank you…", she softly said.

The girl then decided to stick around, acting just a bit overly-friendly.

"I'm Yukari Yuzuki.", she said with a welcoming smile. She had a soft, soothing voice, like a bell. "What's your name?"

"I-I'm Haku. Haku Yowane." She shyly introduced herself.

"'Haku'? You seem more like a 'Chihiro' though!"

"…Now, where have I heard that one before?"

Little Yukari began to eye Haku's drawing.

"I see you also drew a cat and a cake there.", she said. "Hm? Have you ever realized that in Spanish, "gato" is cat, and in French, "gateau" is cake? They're pronounced almost the same."

"Wow!", Haku responded, "I never noticed that before…"

The girls spent a few more minutes drawing doodles on the ground until Haku felt happy, and all other throughts were pushed back behind her smile.

Eventually the topic of Haku's neighborhood came up.

"They look like the bunch of cats in my neighborhood who cheered me up…", she said, eying at a doodle Yuakri did of a bunch of smiling cats.

"One really liked flowers." Haku said endearingly. "It would bring flowers to me in its mouth…"

"Oh, really? But what happened to them?", Yukari sadly asked.

"Hm?", Haku responded.

"Well… you're using past-tenses. So…", Yukari continued, her voice fading.

"Oh, right... I… ended up forgetting all about it.", Haku said softly.

Her guilt quickly returned too. What wound Yukari think of her, to find out her entire story, starting out from how she was an alien to this world?

"I'm... um... k-kind of stranded." Haku started saying. She pleadingly did not want Yukari to find out she was from a different world. What if she would start treating Haku just like everyone else?

Yukari suddenly gasped in an animated way, startling Haku out of her senses.

"I knew it! I knew there was something weird with you!" she said loudly.

Haku's worn-out heart gave a massive pound. No! She couldn't! She couldn't lose her new friend already! She shook her head wildly, ready to curl up and bury her face in her arms...

"…Your arms bend weirdly.", Yukari then said. "That's what's weird with you."

Her arms? Just Haku's arms? She felt relieved. And deceived. And just a tiny touch amused. So she wasn't going to lose her friend after all?

Yukari flexed her arm. It didn't bend at the joint. Instead, it bended loosely in a round shape like a noodle.

"See, my arms? The bend in a circle. Your arms, they like... snap in half."

Haku bended her arm. Of course, it blended at the elbow.

"You mean… no one here has elbows?" she said curiously.

"Elbows?", Yukari asked innocently, with a shivering voice. "They sound scary! A-are they… bad?"

"No… it's just a joint. That's where… two bones attach.", Haku explained.

The taller girl reached out to examine Yukari's arm. It appeared to be… boneless. It felt closer to cartilage than bone.

She giggled as she blended Yukari's arm. Yukari dropped to the ground and did a wave move.

"I call this one the Pulsating Cat!" she said. "I made it during second grade breakdancing class!"

Haku clapped.

"Well, speaking of little animals..." Yukari said, once the mood died down. "Well, I have a problem too... you see… I see the ghost of my old bunny rabbit wandering around here at times. But… seconds after I see her, she always fades or runs away... Glacie. She loved me so much... but one day, she got too old..."

Yukari suddenly grew sad. Sadder than Haku had ever seen her (within the hour she had known her.)

Haku sympathized. To comfort Yukari, she reached out her arm and patted her back.

"Don't worry... Glacie loves you. She's still happy because she gets to see you..."

One thing about Haku was she believed happiness was always possible. She believed everything could become happy, and that happiness was everything. She was the type to re-write a sad book with the happiest ending possible. She was the kind of person who wanted to take sad paintings and make another version where things were happier.

Before she realized it was impossible, her dream used to be to make the entire world a happy place.

And Yukari just reminded her of this.

This was how the true Haku thought.

And maybe, maybe it wasn't impossible at all.

And if Haku wanted this place to really be the world of her dreams, she had to create it... She had to create the happy ending!

"And... I'll make sure I help! I promise, one day we'll find a way to see your bunny again." Haku said, without much thought. She smiled widely, because she really did believe it.

Yes, she thought.

_I'll re-write my story; this story, with a happy ending._

_And maybe then, I'll be a heroine._

* * *

**_A/N:_ **I haven't revealed it yet, but Haku's grandmother actually had the exact same name as her. Haku Yowane. Maybe the young Haku inherited more than just her name from her grandmother? Hm, you'll find out.


	7. Chapter 7

"For now, Haku, would you like to stay at my place? I live alone, so..." Yukari offered kindly.

"Can I really? Thank you so much, I shall! I'm very sorry to be a burden..." Haku said.

"You're not a burden..." Yukari patted her shoulders. "In fact, you're helping me feel better. I've always wanted to see Glacie again, but I'm too afraid she wants to run away from me. Why else would she fade away when I get to close to her?"

"Probably... since she's a ghost, she just doesn't want you to see her like this. She's just afraid of making you sad with the fact she had to become a ghost..." Haku rubbed her arm and spoke, trying to explain the best she could.

"Thanks Haku." Yukari said, curling up to Haku . "Your explanations make a lot of sense."

Haku slowly sighed and pat Yukari's head, taking in the ashen peace of the moment.

* * *

"To get through my house, we have to walk through town." Yukari said. "It might not be like anything you've seen before... but please remember, everything here is safe."

The two were walking towards the colorful buildings Haku saw in the distance. Flat pink clouds were drifting through the white skies above them, leading into the colorful buildings which looked they had been made of cut-out construction paper.

"Everyone here is easygoing and very friendly, especially to people who are tourists."

Haku imagined what Yukari was saying to be true. Yukari was a friendly person after all, and she was nice to Haku upon first seeing her.

Soon enough, the two found themselves walking on a floating road-a trail of large pear-green squares.

"The square path leads to the town square, which is why it's made of squares." Yukari spoke like a tour guide. A girl Haku assumed was quiet at first was more vocal than she imagined.

The two soon passed their first building, a blue striped house with two white windows, a carved-out door, and all kinds of multicolored floating shapes rising and floating out of the chimney.

"But the houses look so flat..." Haku exclaimed.

"Everything here looks flat until you enter it." Yukari said.

The buildings became more abundant, and did come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, just like the people!

Some people's heads were square, but most were round. They all had dots for eyes, a triangular nose, and a colorful single shape for their body. There was a lateral triangle body, a rectangular body, and a roly-poly circular body. Haku even spotted one person with a parallelogram body! The people's limbs were lines that hung straight when they walked and bended when they did a gesture. The people here seemed very, very fond of buttons; they were plastered all over their clothing.

Yukari looked rather normal, nothing like these colorful people made stylistically out of simple shapes. Haku wondered why, but never found the courage to ask. She felt like she would be rude. After all, despite appearances, they were all people.

"Oh, Yukari!" a voice rang in from the distance. Haku looked to the source of the voice and saw it was a boy with a light blue circle for a face, two green swirls for hair, an orange rectangle body, and dark blue bendy limbs. He carried a purple striped bag that swung around as he paced.

"Yukari, my favorite costumer!" he grinned, showing some square teeth. "Our stand imported a new item, triangular sweet potatoes! Would you like to try one for free?"

"Of course! That's great news too!" Yukari grinned.

Haku stood shyly in the back. So, they knew each other?

"Oh, and this is my new friend, Haku!" Yukari grinned.

"Oh... um..." Haku put her arm to her shoulder and shifted away sheepishly.

"Hello Haku. My name is Isogon." the boy was very nice. "Since you're Yukari's friend, would you like to try a triangular sweet potato too?"

"Really?" Haku felt pleasantly surprised at the kind offer. "Sure..."

A rumbling noise suddenly bubbled up between the three. Haku hid her face.

"Oh, that must be my stomach..." Haku chuckled just a bit. "I haven't eaten a thing since I've gotten here."

"Oh, so you're a traveler?" Isogon asked.

"I... guess you could say that." Haku answered, as the three walked back towards the town square's Fruit & Vegetable stand.

"Here you go, freshly steamed, plump and ripe." the friendly kid made of shapes tossed a steaming potato wrapped with a napkin into the hands of Haku and Yukari. The potato had purple skin and yellow insides, much like the typical Asian sweet potato Haku ate all the time at home. She couldn't wait to indulge into its flavor; it would surely remind her of home and comfort.

Haku blowed onto hers, and puffs of steam rose off of it slowly. Once it was cool enough, she bit into it. The taste tingled her senses! It was even sweeter and nuttier than the ones she ate at home.

The feeling of warm scrumptious food in her mouth made Haku feel full and comforted, warming her entire body from the inside.

"Is it good, Yukari?" Isogon asked.

"Mmmm! I'll buy five of them!" the girl in the bunny hood seemed more than approving of the new food item. "I was going to make a big meal tonight... and it's going to be even bigger now that Haku is here!"

"What about Haku? Are you enjoying it?" Isogon smiled.

"It's... delicious..." Haku gushed, on the verge of being emotional. She was being treated with such kindness, and being able to eat such a comforting food made her feel more than grateful.

Haku glanced at the other foods on display. Polka-dot pumpkins that came in the colors of the rainbow? Colorful corn with each kernal a different pastel color?

Yukari lifted one of the pastel corns out of the bucket. And excitedly ran to Haku with it.

"Haku, this is sprinkle corn! The kernels of this corn are very sweet and crunchy, like candy. They would ideally be the topping on a cake or on ice cream!

Haku felt her sweet tooth tingle.

"I'm getting these for the big dessert cake. It's to cheer you up." the girl smiled.

Haku felt touched.

"Isogon!" an unfamiliar voice suddenly hit the three in the backs of their heads.

Isogon turned to the source of the voice and saw the girl standing there. She had a yellow round face, a green triangle body, a semi-circle of pink for her long bangs, triangular pink pigtails jutting from her head, and bendy orange limbs.

"Oh, Scalene! Hi!" Isogon waved, as the girl rushed madly towards their group.

"So, Isogon has TWO girls now who aren't me?" Scelene crossed her noodly arms once she skidded to a stop on the colorful-tiled ground.

"No Scalene! You have it all wrong, these girls are only my friends! You know there's nobody who can replace you!"

"Oh, I was just teasing you a bit, you little vertex-brain." Scalene pounced on Isogon. "I bet the circumference of your face is 3.14, sweet as pi!"

"And... the mass of your shapes... is crushing against the perimeters of mine..." Isogon cried out in a suppressed voice.

"Oops, I'm so sorry, my precious Isogon..." Scalene stood up and helped smooth out Isogon's bended arm until it was all better.

"Thanks... my acute angel."

"My love for you is like a plane that extends into infinity, you know that, right?"

Haku slowly backed away from Isogon and Scalene.

"This is what I call an... awkward intersection. But they don't exactly seem to be on the same line here." Haku scratched her head.

Yukari was strangely giggling.

"I think that's cute..." she blushed and hid her face.

Haku shook Yukari and worriedly told her to come back to her senses.

A strange chirp was in the air and Scalene looked down as if she recognized the sound. She pulled away from Isogon and looked down to her right. Haku followed Scalene's eyes and saw one of the strangest creatures she'd ever seen...

It was a foot tall and looked like an owl... sort of. It's face looked exactly like "(0,0)", the origin point on a graph. The zeroes on its face were wide, empty eyes, and the comma was its small beak.

Its round body was outlined by two more parentheses. On the inside of is belly, was a fraction multiplication problem; 3/4・5/6. The creature's left arm was an "x=", and the right arm was an exponential "-1".

Most notably, was its long colorful tail, shaped like a fan and with both pink stripes and blue polka dots on it, creating a wild pattern.

"What... is that little creature!?" Haku jolted back as it got closer. At first it looked like a nightmare straight out of her algebra book, but looking at it closer, she realized it was actually a little bit cute... despite being made out of equations and text symbols. It's eyes were wide like saucers and they looked at Haku curiously.

"This is Nono, my fractail!" Scalene introduced, bending down to rub the creature's head.

"A... fractail?"

"Mm-hm! Wild fractails live in fractal trees, and that's how they got their name. Not to mention, they have fractions in their bellies. Every single fractail has its own unique tail. When they become older, they grow wings! Nono is still a little baby."

Scalene gestured as if she were rather fond of Nono.

After a while, Nono latched onto Haku's leg, rubbing her face on her pant leg the way a kitten would.

"Aw, I think Nono likes you!" Scalene squealed.

Haku's face turned pink as she bent down to pet Nono, who started purring like an owl. Yukari joined in the petting party, and soon enough, so did Scalene.

Isogon sighed.

"It must be great to be a pet. They get all the girls." he whispered.

"Excuse me?" Scalene stood up. "I heard you, greedy."

"No wait..." Isogon backed away. "I'm not greedy, I was just making a witty timing joke! I realize now that it wasn't funny!"

"Oh, come on and let me hug you!" Scalene rushed after Isogon, who was running away.

Yukari giggled and sighed giddily watching them together. Haku pulled at Yukari's cheeks.

"Yukari, snap out of it..." Haku muttered.

Nono finally jumped up to Yukari and pecked the back of her head.

"Huh? What?" Yukari snapped out of her daze.

* * *

They bought what they had needed and carried the food in a purple-striped shopping bag.

"Thanks, come again!" Isogon waved goodbye.

Soon, the two started to approach downtown, where a lot of power lines hung and some fractails rested on the lines which framed the sky. A light rain started falling. When falling from the sky, the blue raindrops resembled buttons until they hit the ground and became flat puzzle pieces. When the puzzle pieces fused together, what they became was a puddle on the ground.

Tall sleek buildings lined the skyline. The two girls were the types who rather enjoyed the rain, so it didn't matter that they had no umbrella or that they were trapped in the downpour.

"This reminds me of a musical." Yukari told Haku.

Haku nodded. The city rain did give off a lively, theatrical vibe.

"It's because..." Yukari began to shy away surprisingly. "I wanted to be an actress." she said softly.

Haku paused for a second and let the words sink in.

"Yukari, you can become an actress." she told her reassuringly.

Yukari shook her head, causing the raindrops that rested on her hair to fly amok.

"No, it's nothing but a distant dream. I once worked hard at it, but... I got nowhere close to where I wanted to be. I even... I even went to the Whimsica Stage to audition. It's very far away from here, and took a while to get to. Anyway, when I auditioned, I made a huge mistake... and they rejected me. Shortly after that, my rabbit Glacie passed away... she was the one who gave me motivation. After that, all the ambition I had faded away."

Haku put her hand to her face, feeling Yukari's pain. This is something she had never known about her.

"Yukari..." Haku said softly. "I'm sorry that had to happen. But I still believe you are going to accomplish your dream."

"You... do?" Yukari asked Haku.

Haku nodded and put her arm around the smaller girl's shoulder.

"Dreams never die. And I know Glacie is cheering you on."

The two began to walk somberly until Yukari lifted her head up and smiled through the raindrops.

"Haku, thanks." she said. "I'm going to start my dream again." she said.

The two reached the end of the raincloud, and the land around them was covered in puzzle-piece puddles. They were now in the suburbs, almost to where Yukari lived.

"I live kind of along the outskirts of the suburbs right here. Just a little bit more." she told Haku.

A lot of people walking there pets strolled along here. They walked their square dogs and spherical, rolling cats. A small kid was riding in a sleigh being pulled by little pom-pom shaped bunnies. A little girl was even walking her pink, scaly elephant which was covered in flowers!

"We're really fond of pets here, as you can see." Yukari said.

"Yukari, I..." Haku was feeling uncomfortable all of a sudden.

"Hm? What is it Haku?" Yukari looked in curiosity.

"Um... n-nothing." Haku looked away. "I just... kind of need to use the bathroom."

In fact, Haku hadn't used the bathroom since she ever arrived in this strange place.

"Well, um... the buildings here have bathrooms." Yukari answered with a little smile, realizing Haku was feeling embarrassed.

The two entered a random pet shop down the road and Haku instantly rushed towards the bathroom.

The bathroom was covered in blue-toned paintings that looked somber and subdued. The walls quite literally were covered in mopes.

"This is an odd-looking bathroom." Haku frowned as she entered a stall. "Why does it look so sad?"

When Haku finished using the toilet, she made sure to wash her hands thoroughly. (Hey kids, let's practice good hygiene so we can be totally cool like Haku! Remember to always wash your hands after using the bathroom!)

As Haku was washing at the sink, she pressed the square dispenser on the wall for soap bubbles. The transparent bubbles made by the soap were square and bright blue! Square blue bubbles! And they smelled like a tropical paradise!

Haku, very fascinated by this, tried seeing if the other dispenser on the other sude of the bathroom would give her something different. The dispenser was orange and triangular. As well, it gave her soap that created triangular, orange bubbles.

Haku then curiously wondered what kind of color and shape she would get if she mixed both soaps together and scrubbed her hands...

She eagerly gave it a try.

Both of the soaps in Haku's palms, rubbing her hands together caused her hands to sparkle. Soon it wasn't only Haku's hands that were sparkling; the shining light spread throughut her entire body.

"Wait, wha-?" Haku grew anxious all of a sudden.

Soon Haku felt herself beginning to fade away...

* * *

She felt a twinge of blue coolness chilling her face. Haku quickly regained consciousness, finding herself lying in the midst of a wintery field.

When she opened her eyes against the chills, she saw that everything around her was indeed a minty shade of blue. The land was delicately fashioned out of lights and darks; many varying shades of the same azure. The setting was made out of painterly strokes, as gentle as soft ice.

The blue playground between the frame of trees in the distance appeared to be abandoned. In the field Haku sat, it was all as still and somber as a painting.

Maybe it was a painting?

"It looks familiar..." Haku thought, her thoughts melting away into the somber blue she was immersed within. "It looks sad. It feels very sad here."

Her emotions bubbling up again within her, Haku fought sad tears that threatened to crawl to her eyelids. She curled up into a vulnerable position.

A chilly wind blew.

A few seconds later, the quiet wind was accompanied by light rustling of long grass. Haku anxiously watched the moving clump of grass as it rattled around. Pop! Out came a small blue porcupine, crawling on its little paws. The porcupine squeaked in distress, seeming to be as distraught as the sad background it dwelled in.

"Little porcupine, what's wrong?" Haku said so it, almost in tears. She did realize she was talking to a porcupine, yet this was the same world where even shapes could talk.

"Boo-hoo." the porcupine sniffled. "I'm sad because I'm all alone."

The porcupine approached Haku with a slump to its movements.

"Nobody wanted to play with me because my back is covered in spikes," the little porcupine cried. "They all moved far away to a different painting. I'm all alone."

The chilly wind blew again and sad Haku had the urge to hug the little porcupine. She patted it's back and...

"...Ouch."

A quill protruding from the animal's back prickled Haku's palm. She yanked her hand off and rubbed it on her pants.

The porcupine looked up at Haku's pained expression, sighed and turned around. He looked so hopeless that he ended up hurting Haku.

But Haku refused to leave the porcupine alone. She remembered how wonderful it felt when Yukari did a kind gesture and cheered Haku up.

It would be a great thing if Haku were now able to do the same thing for somebody else.

"I'm not scared of you." Haku sweetly said to the little porcupine. "I can play with you." she said.

The little rodent's eyes lit up.

"Really?" it squeaked.

"Yeah..." Haku nodded shyly.

* * *

Haku followed the little porcupine up onto the tall hill. The porcupine had said his name was Thistle and he liked bouncing around like a jellybean.

"Let's roll down the hill together, come on!" Thistle whistled, his mood spiked up. (no pun intended.)

The hill was pretty steep-perfect for rolling down if Haku were to lay on her side. Right at the bottom of the steep hill was a field of the sweet sprinkle corn, all growing in husks from plants with star-shaped leaves.

"Let's go! Whee!" an eager voice besides Haku shouted.

Without hesitation, Thistle tumbled down the hill and sped right to the sprinkle corn plants as if he were a bowling ball and the corn were pins.

"Hey, wait!" Haku shouted, pushing herself down the hill.

"Wobobobo..." the force of gravity pulled down on her, and soon Haku couldn't stop rolling around and around...

Crash! She landed right amongst the sprinkle corn fields! The sweet scent from the plants filled the air, and next to her, she saw Thistle with many colorful bits stuck to his prickly back. The kernels of the sprinkle corn were caking Thistle! Haku was still dizzy, but the ride sure was thrilling. She started to laugh.

"You really look like a cupcake right now, Thistle." Haku said to the blue porcupine.

"Hey, I'm not a cute little cupcake!" Thistle pouted, though he soon began to laugh as well. "Cupcakes are yummy though, right?"

Haku began to pull little pieces of the colorful sprinkle corn off the porcupine's back and slipped them in her mouth. They were crunchy and the organic fruity flavor tingled Haku's tastebuds. Each color had a different flavor too!

"Let's have a picnic right here." Haku said. "We'll eat the sprinkle corn straight off the cob."

Haku and Thistle chowed down on the delicious corn. The distinct flavor of each and every different kernel blended together smoothly in perfect harmony, becoming a medley of flavor. Haku became quite surprised that the little porcupine seemed to be eating more than she did!

After eating, they both sprawled out on a grassy flowery patch, and Haku suddenly remembered there was a place she was supposed to be. Yukari was waiting for her to get out of the bathroom! If she went in there to check, Haku probably would be nowhere to be seen. What if Yukari was searching all around for Haku right now?

"Oh, I'm so sorry Thistle..." Haku sat up and poked the porcupine's soft belly.

Thistle energetically leaped up and eyed Haku.

"I'm sorry, but I have to leave now. I can't play with you forever. But I had fun."

Thistle looked a little sad for a split second, but then a big smile grew on his face.

"Thanks for playing with me, Haku." he said. "It made me so happy!"

Thistle bounced up high, and suddenly the land around transformed before Haku's eyes... the grass' icy blue melted and became a lush green, the wood on the trees became brown, and the sky became an even more vivid shade of blue. Color was everywhere again.

"I had so much fun playing with Haku. Now I won't be sad anymore." Thistle said, his big blue eyes glowing.

Haku smiled as well, and gave the porcupine one last hug. His quills were spiky, but this time Haku didn't flinch.

"Bye-bye!" they said to each other.

"I'll visit you sometime." Haku said as she walked into the distance... but then...

"But I... don't even know how to get out of here in the first place!" Haku suddenly exclaimed.

Suddenly, in the midst of the quaint field, some sort of rip through time and space thing appeared right in front of Haku. She pounced back five feet at the sight of it.

It was a dark purple void filled with strange symbols and blotches of bright light. The psychedelic hole was suspended in mid-air.

Haku started intently at it, and slowly stuck the very tip of her finger in... Suddenly, her whole body spontaneously whooshed into the hole as if it were a celestial space vacuum!

She tumbled out right onto a chunky little asteroid floating in the midst of space! There was a small little lake on this asteroid, a tree abloom with bright flowers, and a little crater. Haku was standing right on top of a little hill. The asteroid was blue.

Everything in this space was blue.

Haku suddenly heard a noise, a low rumbling sound. It was as if the asteroid was breathing.

"Huh?" she exclaimed.

The asteroid sighed again. It was just like a heaving kind of sigh that an unhappy person would make.

A few seconds later, Haku realized the asteroid really WAS sighing.

"Um... what's wrong Mister Asteroid?" Haku asked out loud in a sheepish voice.

"I'm all alone in spaaace."

The asteroid spoke then in the exact voice you would imagine a celestial body to have. A wide, mysterious voice. Not as wide or mysterious as the voice a planet or moon would possess. Just the averagely wide and mysterious voice of an asteroid.

"Oh no!" Haku said.

"You don't know how it feeeels to be but a boring old rock, floating ever-so-eternally in boring old spaaaace with nothing fun to doooo or nobody to talk tooooo..." the asteroid's voice shook all through Haku.

Once the rumbling stopped, Haku spoke to the asteroid with her tiny voice in comparison.

"I'm so sorry you're lonely, asteroid. But how can I make you feel better?" Haku asked.

"Um... hm..." the huge, breathing space rock paused to think. Haku could practically feel the sudden happiness bubbling up within it.

"Give me a back rub!" it exclaimed.

"A back rub?" Haku asked, "But do you even have a back?"

"Yes, I do. And you're quite near it. Just walk a little bit towards the north."

Haku followed the asteroid's orders and walked... north.

"No, no, that's west!"

Haku changed her direction.

"No, that's south! Turn around 180 degrees..."

Haku did as the asteroid said and began walking in the opposite direction.

"Yes, you've got it! Now keep going... keep going... wait, no! You're going to far! That's my BUTT, not my back!"

"Eeek!" Haku yelled. She was wondering why there were two hills right next to each other there.

"You're at the perfect location!" the asteroid said, once Haku was directly on his back. "Now... start stamping your feet... just move a lot, basically."

"Huh? I thought you wanted a back rub, not a massage?" Haku sheepishly said.

"Oh... it's the same thing." the asteroid said. "Now start moving!"

Haku sighed and did what she was told. The asteroid was pretty demanding. Even though you wouldn't expect for something floating in space all alone for who-knows-how-long to have any social skills anyway.

Haku stamped her feet and then blended down and started doing the noodle. Then she beat her fists into the ground like a child having a temper-tantrum.

"No, you're doing it to lightly! You have to REAAALLY press down on me!"

Haku panted lightly and then she had an idea... she could do the ridiculous dance she made up during the swag competition! Maybe that could be enough for a decent massage!

So Haku rotated her arms and hopped around, and began shaking her hips.

"Pfft... Haha! Hahaha! What kind of movement is that!?"

The asteroid was laughing! The entire rock was trembling and Haku could feel the happiness spreading to her. It was contagious!

"Um... it's called... dancing. I think." Haku said.

"Dancing?" the huge rock sounded out the word. "That's the first time I've heard of that!"

Haku grew stunned.

"By the way, what's your name?" the steroid asked.

"Um... Haku." Haku answered.

"Hey, I'm Marble!" the asteroid said. "Haku, I want to dance too!"

Marble was... finally starting to become happy! He began doing spins and moving side-to-side.

"Is that how you dance?" he asked Haku.

"Yes! But... wait, what if I fall off of you?" Haku shouted.

"My gravity will keep you on!" Marble said. Haku felt stupid and her face turned pink.

Haku kept on doing her dumb little dance, and as Marble tumbled happily through space, he passed by a disco music rock! Psychedelic lights flew and shone everywhere as happy dance music blared!

"Wow! I don't think I've ever had such... fun!" Marble said once they danced for a few lively minutes.

Haku kept dancing on the asteroid and bit-by-bit, color began to pour into the empty blue space.

Comets of all different colors flew past in graceful formation. The stars all around popped out of the sky and starred singing to the music.

"Oh Haku, thank you!" Marble said. "You taught me the miracle of dancing! I've never felt so... alive!"

"You're welcome." Haku said.

"Now, shall I take you back to your home planet?"

Haku looked in the distance, and then saw a beautiful sight that filled her eyes with comfort and joy.

A blue and green planet filled with life... right there in the distance. Somewhere on that big earth was Haku's home.

But then... Haku's pupils shrank.

Was Haku really ready to leave all her friends from the new land? Without even saying goodbye? Yukari and everyone else... plus her ribbon was still missing!

Her special ribbon, her friends...

Haku's eyes watered as she sank down into the rocky surface of the asteroid. The thoughts were too heavy. And so was Earth's gravity. Haku soon felt herself being pulled away.

"Goodbye Haku!" Marble said to her as she was being pulled off his surface. "I'm afraid this is goodbye, for this planet's gravity is stronger than mine. It's pulling you in, away from me..."

"Aaah! Goodbye Marble!" Haku waved as she slowly began to be sucked into Earth's gravity, her tears being pulled from her eyelids, illuminated in the star's light like colorful crystals.

Haku sped through time and space, almost as if a portal had opened up between space and Earth. As she sped towards the land of Earth, she had closed her eyes and had fallen asleep, making for a peaceful and unconscious descent.

Every single thing was a blur.

Haku soon found herself sitting at a totally normal desk in a totally normal room.

"Desk? Room?"

Haku thought as she looked around.

"Am I..."

A slow, swelling feeling settled in the pit of her heart.

"Am I... home?"

She looked around. This room was normal and quaint, with ordinary colors; nothing bright and eccentric. No chocolate chickens bombarding the space, no talking inanimate objects, nothing that looked two-dimensional or out-of-place...

The house didn't look exactly like hers, but being back on Earth... it was enough for Haku to consider herself back home.

Before she knew it, a tear dripped off her face.

"Home... I'm home."

Haku buried her face in her hands.

"Yo."

Haku promptly lifted her face when she heard a strange voice. Somebody was here?

Well, if it wasn't her house, it would've been the awkward moment when the owner of the house walked in the room and found Haku there.

But even when she got out of her seat and roamed around, Haku could see nobody.

She went back to her desk, feeling puzzled.

"Yooo."

Listening again, it seemed the voice was coming from the desk!

Haku looked down at it, and saw that a sheet of homework paper had a moving face.

Her mouth fell right open. Things were STILL going crazy!

"You mean... you mean..." Haku began shivering in realization. "I'm NOT home after all!?"

"Girl, help me please." the paper said.

"How?" Haku asked it.

"I am a fabulous homework sheet." it crooned. "Unfortunately, nobody wants to solve my problems. Maybe I'm just too cool for them or something? But yeah. If you would kindly do the work listed on me, I would be like, awesomely happy."

Haku sighed. Doing good deeds felt good. At first. But to help a talking sheet of homework with an attitude by doing the problems listed on it?

"Fine..."

The first problem was a couple lines of sheet music.

"It says to play this on a piano." Haku told the homework. "Is there a piano around here?"

"Why yes!" the homework said. "It's north of here.

Haku began walking...

"No, that's south. Turn 180 degrees..."

Haku, holding the homework sheet in her hands, followed the directions.

"Wait no... you're going too far north now!"

Haku eventually found the grand piano in a broad room, put the homework flat on its stand, and began to slowly play the music written on it...

She was still an amateur at reading notes, yet she had taken piano lessons for a little while.

After a while, she successfully played a nice little tune.

After she was done, however, the piano's top opened. From inside the piano, light was pouring out.

"I think... I hope this is going to lead me back." Haku thought, as she stood up on her seat to get ready to climb inside.

* * *

Meanwhile...

"Haku! Haku! Where did you go?"

Yukari Yuzuki was turning the pet-shop bathroom upside-down looking for her friend.

She looked in the toilets, lifted all the mirrors, looked in the toilets, pulled out all the paper towels, looked in the toilets...

Did I mention she looked in the toilets? Because sometimes you can find surprises in there.

When she finally stopped for a while and listened to the silence around her, her ears picked up a soft, gentle piano tune.

"It's coming from the toilet..." Yukari noticed. She stuck her ear in it.

When the song finished, the toilet flushed in reverse. Yukari timidly backed away, and Haku magically floated out of it, holding a homework paper in her hand. And no, she wasn't sopping wet with toilet water.

"Haku! Where have you been!?" Yukari hugged her. Haku hugged Yukari back, feeling more than content to be back with her friend.

Yes, for now... it was almost better than being back home. In fact, this was almost like home. Because a home was never a home without friends.

Haku noticed almost immediately that the sad paintings the bathroom was covered in had become colorful and happy... and she finally figured everything out.

A painting of space with a smiling, dancing asteroid. A painting of a field with a happy porcupine.

They made Haku's heart warm to look at.

There was also a kind-of-empty painting of a normal-looking house...

"Hey." the homework said. Haku jumped out of her sentimental mood. She still had it in her hand!

"You forgot about me." it groaned.

* * *

Once they were out of the bathroom, Haku told the story of where she'd been to Yukari and the owner of the pet shop.

"If you use both of the soaps at the same time, you teleport into the painting you're nearest. I bet Thistle the porcupine would be very happy if you played with him. And Marble the asteroid would be happy if you danced with him sometime. And the third one... well..."

Haku sinisterly stared at the homework in her hand.

"There's a paper of homework begging for its problems to be solved. But I kind of brought it back here."

The pet shop owner looked at Haku's hand funny, but soon looked at her face with a smile.

"You know, those sad paintings in the bathroom had been bothering me since I first saw them. I'm so glad you found a way to make them happy." the owner smiled.

Haku smiled back. She slowly was accomplishing her own goal; becoming someone who spreads happiness.

"Well, we're almost at my house now." Yukari said to Haku.

The two were now walking along a giant piano. The path was made of an endless array of keys, all which made a different note when stepped on. Running along the path would create a tune.

As Haku ambled behind, a sweet scent caught the both of them off-guard.

"Flan!" Yukari exclaimed. She eagerly rushed to where the aroma was coming from, which was a sample stand of two chefs.

Flan.

Not that word! Memories of the incident filled Haku's brain again. She created a monster while aiming to cook flan. Just like that, everyone began to hate her, and they had a reason to. She was a creator of destruction.

"You want some flan, Haku?" Yukari optimistically asked, eating some.

Normally, Haku would've been delighted for some flan. But her stomach already felt like flan. In other words, it felt wiggly, wobbly and just plain unstable.

The monster Haku had created was probably roaming around this strange land, maybe even causing destruction this very second!

* * *

**A/N**: This entire chapter is new, as in none of it had been written a long time ago, when I wrote the first version of Whimsica. Chapter 8 is entirely an old chapter though.

I feel like I used to have a much better sense of humor when I first made this story. I'm finding it hard to make things funny now.


	8. Chapter 8

Dusk had fallen. The flowers outside Yukari's house were glowing in a soft purple, and a warm breeze was holding the serene night together.

The inside of her house was rustic and dreary, a thin layer of cool, murky darkness covering then walls and floor.

At the same time, the setting didn't bring Haku a shiver. It brought her a peaceful feeling.

It didn't feel nearly as scary as it did nostalgic.

Yukari flicked a light on. At first the light flickered and shuttered, but then stabilized into a dark silver glow, illuminating the place tenderly.

"Well...", the shorter girl sighed. "I'm sorry if this isn't what you would expect... honestly. But I can tell you. Pretend this little place is... a high-class mansion, and it can actually work. That's what I do every day. I know it isn't a mansion, but... try, please?"

Haku smiled, a sweet earthly smile which was kind of like the light which shined in the gray house. She nodded.

"Well... I have food in the kitchen... I hope you like it.", Yukari said, humbly. She soon noticed Haku was roaming around, pondering on when it was okay to settle down into this new person's house.

"Ah... just feel free to make yourself at home! I wouldn't ever mind!"

Haku smiled and plopped down on a nearby couch. She imagined it to feel comfy, just the way a cloud would feel...

"Haku, that IS the holographic couch you know!" the bunny-hood girl panicked.

"Huh?", Haku cried. I was too late and she bumped her bottom right on the floor.

"This couch... really does feel like a cloud." Haku thought, somewhat in pain. "Considering you'd go right through a cloud anyway..."

Haku stood herself up, wondering for a bit why Yukari would have a holographic couch. She soon settled on that it was the same reason Akaito had owned one-because it was lonely in the house.

Eep... Akaito. Haku cringed just thinking about him. She quickly wiped the thoughts out of her mind.

Yukari pulled out a bag of pasta noodles from the pantry.. The package was cute, with polka dots. The pasta was shaped like roses!

"Oh..." Haku said, admiring the shape. Each of the pasta shapes were individually crafted, in layers like a rose. "It's like... art."

"Well.", Yukari smiled. "In the place you're in right now, everything here looks like art! The lands you saw outside before? It was geometrical and abstract art! If you venture far enough into this world, you might find sketch world, airbrush land..."

Yukari dug back into her pantry and found a cabbage made out of rice cracker, some mysterious sauce made out of a rare mushroom (that was supposed to be really tasty), and some pepperoni.

"Is this... all really going to go together?" Haku asked.

"Um... I think so." Yukari answered. "Also, I shouldn't forget those potatoes we got. You see, potatoes were Glacie's favorite food."

"Oh." Haku sighed sadly with Yukari. "But maybe if you cook it, she'll come again to visit? Maybe this time you'll even be able to talk to her."

"Haku, thank you, but..." Yukari made an embarrassed face. "Well, you see... I'm really bad at cooking!"

* * *

Haku had decided to help Yukari cook, even though she wasn't really a cook herself.

"Ah!", Yukari sulked as her stick of butter flew out of the window. "That always happens!"

Yukari ran to the door to run after the stick of butter. (as it was a special kind of butter that could actually run away in a fashion similar to the gingerbread man if left outside too long.)

According to directions Yukari made, it was time to cook the potatoes on a frying pan and add the sauce.

She placed the potato slices in the pan, added the mushroom sauce, and soon enough the small, yet comforting house was filled with a rich scent.

Haku thought about how her cooking happened to be a success only now.

"It's going well, even though I'm not a good cook."

Just then, the sizzling and Haku's soft speaking was interrupted by a distant, almost somber squeak.

Haku paused.

The sizzle of of the sauce began to feel even louder, yet the atmosphere quieted at the same time.

"Squeak!" Thump.

This time is seemed closer.

"A rabbit!?", thought Haku. "It sounds like its close by. Yet the sound feels distant. And..."

The girl gazed around the open houseroom.

"I feel a prescence, but my eyes see nothing. Like the sensation of feeling...a ghost!?"

"Ring... ring..."

The sound of tinkling bells crept in and chilled the room. The atmostphere was now shockingly still.

"Glaice...?" Haku thought.

"She probably wants the potatoes!"

"Squeak!" Haku suddenly heard a purring noise, coming from all around her.

Right above her, a transparent vision of a light grey rabbit hovered above the potato dish, appealing pleased by the smell.

Haku was fascinated by the vision, and soon smiled at her.

"Glacie...", she said, warmly.

She could hardly wait for Yukari to get back and how overjoyed she would be.

"Glacie... you remember... Yukari, don't you?", she asked it.

Glacie gave a sad-happy look, and began to twitch her nose.

"...Glacie!", Haku barely had knew this rabbit, yet she already felt the wanting to hug it.

But, as Glacie was a ghost bunny, Haku found her grip stopping against someone cold, transparent. And next, she was treated by a hot, overwhelming burn from the pan, which she ended up toppling against.

"EYAHAHA!", she exclaimed.

Tears pinched her eyes as she held up her arms, which were stinging and fizzing.

"I'm such an idiot sometimes...", she spoke hatefully to herself.

Surprisingly, what Glacie did was fly over and around Haku. With a spectacular sound of sparkles, Haku's arm suddenly healed! It felt better than ever!

"Glacie!". Haku was stunned. "You can heal!"

Just then, a creak in the door signalized Yukari's return. Haku heard a gasp and whimper coming from where the door would be.

The small, frilly-dressed girl dropped the stick of butter. Her eyes became big pools of emotion, and immediately she took off on her feet and ran towards the kitchen.

"Glaciiiiieeee!" Yukari ran towards the vision, almost sobbing.

* * *

"Great. So we lost Haku."

Akaito by this time had lost a lot of energy. He had been wandering for hours, only to find himself... nowhere.

"Really kid. I can't believe you lied that the winner of your dumb contest would be sent back home." Akaito said, grumpily.

"Hm." instead of apologizing (like he was already forced to do thousands of times by Akaito), Len instead pointed this out.

"You do... seem to care a lot more about Haku than I thought. I'm still wondering... why? Why do you even care about her in the first place?"

"Just... quiet." Akaito said. "She's the only one around by now who ISN'T a total maniac. Plus, we're both in the same situation, and... and frankly, tracing back to the castle incident, she's the one who put us in this situation!"

Akaito heard Len utter a discreet whisper.

"Tsundere..." it sounded like.

"Hm?" Akaito squinted.

"Nothiing." Len responded sing-song-like tone. He had given Akaito Haku's ribbon to return, which he was now guarding in his pocket.

"And the other reason is that you feel bad for her, right?"

Akaito didn't respond, almost as if he were... trying not to.

"Well, anyway, I smell something really good cooking!" Len said, following the scent of it.

"Good for you..." Akaito said back.

As Akaito was following Len, who was following the scent of the meal, he then started to hear a familiar voice, in the same confused, panicked tone he has always been hearing it in.

"What do you mean... Yukari?! You are a ghost too? And..." Haku spoke in a terrified tone.

"Yes." Yukari said calmly. "Like all ghosts, I have lost memory of how I became this way,"

Haku gasped, she knew Yukari meant the way she had died.

"But, I do remember that... my life was very happy. Thank you. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be happily reunited like this." Yukari and Glacie hugged each other.

Haku concluded that only ghosts could touch each other without passing through one another, yet she was thinking so hard about other things that she barely acknowledged the thought.

"Now, we can finally rest in peace... goodbye Haku. You were such a good friend. You reassured me, and you've given me the courage to keep following my dream." Her voice was poignant and sincere. Yukari began to glow with a pure, lavender light, lifting up her hand to wave goodbye.

Tears fell from Haku's eyes and streaked her red cheeks.

"Don't go...", she called out weakly. She felt heartbroken that her first true friend, who she thought would stick with her forever, was now going away.

"Well, of you must...", her words were choked with sobs. "I wish... for your afterlife to be filled with joy. Think of it as a new beginning.", Haku tried speaking clearly, and with a cheerful, wishing tone.

"You... I believe in you. You will become an actress and act... amongst the stars in the sky!"

Meanwhile, Len and Akaito were now peeking in the old, sparkling house (illuminated from Yukari's glow), from the outside.

The ironic part is what Len said...

"Are they shooting a movie in there?"

"I guess so. Haku and... whats-her-name are good actresses." Akaito shrugged.

Len pulled out a bag of popcorn.

"Extra cheesy. Perfect for watching drama."

Len and Akaito began to nonchalantly eat.

"Cheesy indeed."

"Goodbye...", Yukari was now shining so bright, that she was nothing but a crisp, white silouette.

"Farewell my friend!", Haku called out, trying her best to not sob.

Suddenly, just as one would expect Yukari to lift of the ground like an angel, and dissolve into invisible fragments, the white silhouette instead faded until she was back o normal.

Yukari and Haku stood there for a minute.

"...Eh?"

Akaito sniffled.

"Oh my gosh!", Len exclaimed. "You're CRYING!".

He laughed, yet with a scared expression on his face. It was quite... weird.

"What. No.", Akaito had a stern and solid voice. "It's the chili powder I was dumping on my popcorn."

He held up a shaker of it.

Len poker-faced.

"..Nice save, boyo. I believe you, THIS TIME." he said.

Suddenly, a voice came out of nowhere. Nowhere as in no exact location. It resonated from everywhere.

"Yukari Yuzuki. There is no reason for you to ever rest in peace. You are already the most peaceful person you can be. You have many ties and different friends back on here. This is truly where you will always belong."

The voice faded away, and so did all the lights. Everything simply reverted to normal.

Yukari suddenly felt like she had weight. She felt Glacie resting on her shoulder. She had thick, fluffy fur.

"Haku! Feel my hand!", she exclaimed happily.

Haku reached her hand out and gasped in delight when she felt a warm, solid and soft hand.

"You... Yukari! You're not... a ghost anymore!"

Yukari gasped with unexplainable delight and jumped around ecstatically.

"YIPEEEE! oh Haku! How I have always wanted to a far-off land... and now I can finally leave this place and go so many places! We can be friends forever now!"

Haku hugged Yukari tighter than she'd ever had.

"Um... Akaito. I suddenly get the feeling that... this isn't acting." Len said.

Akaito sniffled again.

"...And I also get the feeling that you are ACTUALLY CUH-RYING!" Len stated.

"Shut up, it's pepper sauce."

Seconds after Akaito said that, he stood up and entered the house through the door.

"Smooth move.", Len said. "I would think that would surprise them. And not in any pleasant way."

And indeed, it did surprise them. In quite an unpleasant way.

"Gyaaaah!", Haku screamed involuntary.

"Aka-Aka-Aka... AKAITO!?"

"Yes.", he said. His face was stern and serious. His eyes were devoid of emotion and his expression was incredibly solid.

But then to Haku's suprise, he smiled.

Haku had to smile back, just a bit. It was the first time Haku ever saw a true smile of his, now that she actually thought if it.

"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry. I had to look for you, I... I couldn't leave you alone."

"Thank... you.", Haku audibly murmured.

"And here.", Akaito held his hand out and showed Haku a loose, slightly worn-out black and violet hair ribbon.

"My ribbon!", Haku held it to herself, and tied her loose hair back into her usual low ponytail in incredible speed, into her trademark perfect bow.

The expression on her face right then was so glorious that it lifted everyone's feelings.

"Haku. I'm sorry for saying all those horrible things. I wanted to let you know, you aren't useless. You're kind, and you have a heart."

Akaito, realizing how out-of-character he was going, ended his phrase with,

"And also, you aren't a total wackjob maniac. Well... not all the way, at least."

Len, still watching the scene through the window, rolled up his bag of popcorn.

"Popcorn just... does not go will with soap operas. At all. I have heartburn now."

"Oh, by the way... didn't Len say he had something that's able to send me back home? It was the prize for winning the swag contest?" Haku asked.

Len began to giggle. An exaggeratingly guilty and mischevious giggle.

"S-sorry about that." he had a peculiar-looking little half-smile. "I... I lied about that."

Akaito facepalmed while Haku shrieked.

"WHAAAAT!?"

"Aww." Yukari said.

"But, I'll make sure to give you a nice life for the time being! I won't let anything happen to you Haku!" Yukari looked really determined.

* * *

EPIC MEANWHILE...

"Anise, Anise!", the little annoying Zircon raved to the ticked-off girl in dark blue, who was now soaring though a clear, blue sky on her bewitched broom; the clouds an uplifting white contrast.

Almost as of the beautiful sky was mocking Anise and all of her frustration.

"WHAT IS IT, ZIRCON!?", Anise yelled to her younger sidekick. Zircon was a boy with a sharp electrifying blue outfit and shocking white hair.

"A world made out of candy would be SUPER easy to take over, Anise! Just saying." Zircon gestured.

"What nonsense are you even rambling about?", Anise nagged. "A world made out of candy... are you implying that I'm pathetic?!"

"No!", Zircon urged, slightly intimidated. "Look directly below you! There's a land made out of SWEETS!"

Anise looked down and immideatly gave a girly squeal when she saw the confection utopia which sprawled a ways around her.

"You're right, Zircon!"

Her mouth opened obnoxiously wide.

"You know... all this fighting with that Stelle does work me up an appetite!"

Anise took a hard nosedive on her broom, headed straight to the wonderland of sweets.

"Letsu go!" and "Gyauyaagh!" were what their two cries sounded like as they raced through the thin atmostphere.

As usual, the slightly clumsy Anise had a bad landing-right smack in the middle of a ridiculously sugary race course, and right in front of the army of speeding cars-made out of you guessed it... CANDY!

"Gyuaaaah!", Anise shrieked as scented winds flew past, as the candy cars did everything they could to avoid running over the strange witch girl who just fell out of the sky.

"Watch where you're going, licorice-face!", yelled a girl who had a short white bob.

The next racer who passed by was noticeably slower than the others,

"I'm sorry..." she sighed as she staggered on in her racecar past Anise, looking helpless.

Anise weakly pulled herself up, disdaint.

"What. In. The. World.", she said, briskly.

* * *

**A/N: **This chapter is old. Chapter 7 is a new chapter, but this one was from 2012. That could explain why the writing is sub-par at times (plus I'm too lazy to fix it)

Yes, the ending was supposed to be a Wreck-It-Ralph reference. The girl with the white bob? That's Taffyta. Whimsica (back when it was known as A Random Pointless Series) was originally going to be a huge crossover on crack. Except this website doesn't really do huge crossovers so I canceled that.

HOWEVER, I have decided that I won't let that stop me from making this story what I had wanted it to be. I might reference fandoms and even have characters cameo for maybe one sentence or so. I'm also keeping the Sugar Racer plot in because at this point, it's something I can't remove.

**Neru, the secondary main character, is coming in next chapter! Yay!**

Neru was never to be in the original A Random Pointless Series, but I'm adding her in now. Her appearance is new, and therefore I have to "edit" her into old chapters. It'll be worth it though. The secondary main character originally was going to be Akaito, but now I think Neru overall is better.


End file.
